Patna HC vacates stay on recruitment of 1.25 lakh teachers after govt assures of lawful reservation for candidates with disabilities

PATNA: Decks have been cleared for the recruitment of 1.25 lakh teachers at primary and secondary level in government schools in Bihar as Patna high court on Thursday vacated the stay on the preparation of final merit list for their appointment.
The stay was vacated after the state government assured the high court that it has rectified all errors and was giving required 4% reservation to candidates with disabilities in the entire recruitment process as per the law along with 15 days’ time for them to fresh make application subjected to condition that they had not made it earlier.
The entire recruitment process was lingering since almost a year after the high court stayed the process of preparing merit list on July 24 last year for not giving reservation to disabled candidates as per the law.
While vacating the stay on the recruitment process, the division bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice S Kumar simultaneously also disposed of the writ petition of National Federation of The Blind after hearing it virtually.
The federation had moved the high court in February last year challenging the entire recruitment process on grounds that the state government has not given 4% reservation for the disables in the recruitment process as per Section 34 of The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
The federation had urged the high court that the state government be directed to follow the reservation rules for the disabled persons including blind who are eligible for 1% reservation from the 4% reserved seats out of the entire vacant positions.
Advocate general Lalit Kishore, appearing for state government along with additional advocate general PK Verma and counsel Shilpa Singh, on Thursday submitted that the state government has rectified the procedure to give 4% horizontal reservation to the disabled candidates as per law.
Supreme Court senior counsel SK Rungata assisted by counsel Sugandha Prasad, appearing for the federation, had earlier disputed the way state government had reserved seats for disabled candidates as sub-category under a category citing that it was not as per law.
The federation counsels had also demanded that a fortnight time be given for such candidates to make an application after notifying their seats.
On Thursday, AG apprised the high court that the state government has agreed on giving a fortnight time to such candidates for making application subject to condition that they have not applied earlier.
He also apprised that such candidates need to fulfil eligibility criteria which was present till the last date of submitting application which was November 23, 2019.
AG also submitted that the state government would allow such candidates to submit fresh applications but only against the seats reserved for them.
Kishore also urged the high court that any further litigation arising from this recruitment process only be taken up by the division bench headed by Chief Justice which was accepted too.
On Thursday, the high court also disposed of another writ petition of the federation in which it had urged that state government be directed to notify the seats for disabled persons and make their appointment against the recruitments which had been already completed in the past.
Kishore and Verma assured the bench that the state government is also working on this issue and it needs at least four months’ time to calculate all seats for the disabled persons and notify them.