A triumph for Delhi school teachers with disabilities
16th October 2024.
There are almost two thousand teachers with disabilities in Delhi government schools, and yet they are inadequately represented in the higher teaching cadres. Now, after several representations by an association of teachers with disabilities in consultation with the Disability Law Initiative, the Delhi Government has decided to provide them the benefit of 4 % reservation in promotion to teaching posts ranging from graduate and postgraduate teachers to vice-principals. This will not only immediately increase their presence in these higher posts, but also serve as a model in disability inclusion for 18 lakh school going children in Delhi.
On 30th June 2016, in the case of Rajeev Kumar Gupta presented by DLI, the Supreme Court held that the 4 % reservation in public sector posts, as mandated by the Disabilities Act, was applicable not only in direct recruitment but also in promotion. The Court noted that several public sector posts in the higher echelons were filled only by promotion, and to exclude such posts from the purview of reservation was a fraud on the positive mandate of the Disabilities Act.
After this decision was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in Siddaraju’s case, the Central Government issued executive instructions on 17th May 2022 for implementing reservation in promotion for employees with disabilities in all its cadres. The Delhi Government, however, took the view that these instructions were to be implemented only prospectively. This effectively stymied the aspirations of its employees with disabilities, who had been waiting for this benefit since June 2016. They would now need to wait in line until an adequate number of fresh vacancies became available in promotional posts.
In consultation with the Disability Law Initiative, an association of teachers with disabilities made representations to the Delhi Government and the Delhi Disabilities Commissioner, bringing to their notice that the Central Government had made reservations in promotions for employees with disabilities retrospective to 30th June 2016, the date of DLI’s Supreme Court’s judgment in the case of Rajeev Kumar Gupta. By its letter dated 8th August 2024, the Delhi Government agreed to this position. Click here to see the letter.
This means:
- Delhi school teachers who are eligible to be promoted against disability reservation will be immediately promoted to supernumerary vacancies
- They will be given notional seniority from their date of eligibility going as far back as June 30th, 2016
- This will result in an immediate increase in the presence of teachers with disabilities in the higher teaching cadres in the Delhi Government
- This welcome development is capable of being replicated in all the States in India
Case References:
Rajeev Kumar Gupta vs. Union of India, 2016 (13) SCC 153