Maintaining that 3 per cent of the “total strength” of employees in any government establishment should be disabled persons, the Delhi High Court has directed the Centre to conduct a “special recruitment drive” to fill the backlog in posts reserved for this category by December 2010, according to the National Federation of the Blind.The court has also constituted a committee to monitor the implementation of its directive.

This decision by a Bench of Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Muralidhar is based on a PIL filed by a visually challenged lawyer, S K Rungta, in 2006, against the government’s poor record in implementing the Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.

Section 33 of the Act prescribes the mandatory reservation of 3 per cent seats for disabled persons in government posts. This quota is to be equally distributed among candidates who are visually challenged or suffering from low vision, and those with hearing impairment and locomotor disability.

“Leave aside the three per cent quota, government bodies like the Staff Services Commission issues employment ads which exclude disabled persons from applying,” said Rungta who represented the Federation. Appearing for the Centre, Additional Solicitor General P P Malhotra had argued that the implementation of reservation depended on the number of vacancies.

“This new interpretation of Section 33 will act as a judicial tool against a defective policy followed in the past 13 years,” Rungta said.

“A special recruitment drive will be undertaken, and during this period, ordinarily, there will be no other recruitment,”read a written communication from the National Federation of the Blind.