SC to take up Haryana Govt. plea against HC stay on 75% quota in private jobs
SC to take up Haryana Govt. plea against HC stay on 75% quota in private jobs
On Thursday Punjab & Haryana HC had put stay on Govt. order
New Delhi, Feb. 4 (Delhi Crown): The Haryana government has filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) before the Supreme Court asking it to issue orders to the Punjab and Haryana High Court to withdraw its stay on a state law that provides 75% reservation in private sector jobs for local people.
The Supreme Court has accepted the plea and listed the matter for hearing on February 7 (Monday).
The “Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act 2020”, which was notified on November 6, 2021, seeks to provide 75% reservation for local candidates in private sector jobs that offer a salary of less than Rs. 30,000 a month.
The Act came into effect on January 15, 2022, but the Punjab and Haryana High Court put a stay on it on the basis of an objection filed by several industries association across the state.
The law applies to all companies, societies, trusts, limited liability partnership firms, partnership firms and any person employing ten or more persons. But it is not applicable to employees of the central government or state government, or to any organisation owned by them.
The Supreme Court has accepted the plea and listed the matter for hearing on February 7 (Monday), subject to the placing of the order by the Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, who had approached the apex court on behalf of the Haryana government and had requested that the matter be urgently listed.
Chief Justice N.V. Ramana will preside over the bench hearing the case.
Earlier, Justices Ajay Tewari and Pankaj Jain of the Punjab and Haryana High Court had put a stay on the law after hearing the FIA’s writ petition last month in which it said that the Act was unconstitutional and arbitrary, and in violation of Articles 14, 15, and 19 of the Constitution.
It demanded that the Act be struck down as inter alia, it gives excessive and broad discretion to authorised officers to make such appointments which may be unfair or in favour of a particular community or class of people.
The Faridabad Industrial Association (FIA) further said that the Act is contrary to the very idea of common citizenship for the Union of India and fails to uphold the federal structure of the Union of India which is a part of the basic structure of the Constitution of India.
