Finalise promotion quota process for disabled in 6 weeks, CTU told
The Chandigarh Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal has directed the Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) to finalise the whole process for grant of reservation in promotion to eligible persons with disability (PwD) category employees within six weeks.
The Bench has issued the direction on an application of five PwD employees of the CTU through advocate KB Sharma under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, after the CTU denied them reservation in promotion as per government directions. The employees said that they were appointed in CTU through direct recruitment as bus conductor from 1993 to 2004 under the physically handicapped quota. The next promotions of the applicants were for the post of inspector.
All applicants having 40 per cent permanent disability submitted a representation to the Secretary, Department of Personnel, Chandigarh Administration on August 20, 2020, requesting promotion to the post of inspector by providing reservation in promotion (4 per cent) in terms of the notification dated October 3, 2019, issued by the Government of Punjab.
The applicants also served legal notice dated December 17, 2020, seeking the benefit of 4 per cent reservation in promotion. The respondents promoted 53 conductors/sub inspectors as inspectors on December 18, 2020, without providing reservation to the disabled eligible employees. They said that the respondents vide order dated June 10, 2021, rejected the claim of the applicants for reservation in promotion.
On the other hand, the respondents said that the applicants had relied upon Punjab Government instructions dated October 3, 2019, which had not been adopted by the Chandigarh Administration.
Respondents in their reply have further stated that the Chandigarh Administration followed the rules prescribed by Central Government and there was no provision for reservation in promotion for persons with benchmark disabilities, however the matter had been referred to Government of India.
After hearing the arguments the tribunal said that from the perusal of records it was clear that the matter regarding grant of the benefit of reservation to the PwD category in terms of notification dated December 28, 2023, was under process. It was also mentioned in the reply that after vetting, the department will provide the notional benefits as per instructions.
The tribunal further said that in view of the above the application was disposed of with the direction to the respondents to finalise the whole process for grant of reservation in promotion to the PwD category and grant the relevant benefits to the eligible persons within six weeks from the date of receipt of the copy of this order.
