The Punjab and Haryana High Court has given relief to the employees who got jobs in Haryana with bonus marks on socio-economic basis. The double bench of the High Court has made it clear that they will not be removed completely. There is no fault of the employees in this. There was a mistake in the rules made by the government, so the government will appoint the employees who could not make it to the revised merit on a contract basis. In future, whenever regular posts are vacant in the departments, they will be appointed by the government on those posts as per the rules.
The division bench of Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and Justice Meenakshi Mehta of the High Court, while disposing of several petitions, has ordered to cancel the results of all those government recruitments done after 2019 and prepare them afresh, in which selection was done by giving additional marks on social and economic basis.
The High Court said these important things in its decision…
The court implemented the no fault theory: The court considered it against the principle of equality and equal opportunity of the Constitution and said that these bonus marks have corrupted the selection process. The benefit of additional marks was given without concrete data, due to which this entire process went against the constitutional provision. The bench also applied the “no-fault theory” for those candidates who had passed the written examination and have been working for a long time.
Employees are not at fault: The court said that these candidates had gone through a tough selection process and were appointed according to the process which was laid down in the advertisement. Even though the court has rejected the notification of 11 June 2019, these appointed employees should not be punished, because it is not their fault.
Fault in the rule itself: The court said that the rule made to give additional marks on social and economic basis was fundamentally flawed. When the economically backward classes are already getting the benefit of reservation, then there was no need for such additional benefit. This is also a form of reservation, which has violated the prescribed 50 percent limit of reservation, which is not legally valid. The High Court not only declared these marks illegal, but also called the selection process itself careless.
10 thousand employees will be affected: The court said that the government neither collected any kind of socio-economic data nor presented any scientific basis for the validity of additional marks on this basis. More than 10 thousand government employees will be affected by this decision.
The government argued this
It was argued on behalf of the state government that this policy is based on the principle of public welfare being the supreme law and its objective is to provide opportunities to the weaker sections of the society. The court rejected this argument and said that a policy which gives marks only on the basis of social status instead of merit is against the spirit of the Constitution.
The decision was implemented in 2021
The Manohar Lal Khattar government had decided to give 5 bonus marks to backward applicants on social and economic basis in jobs. The decision was implemented from 2021. Under this, the youth of families in which no member is in a government job and the family income is less than Rs 1.80 lakh per annum, were given the benefit of 5 additional marks.
A crisis has arisen for those who get jobs on the basis of marks on social and economic basis in Haryana. In this regard, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has given an important decision on Thursday. The court has canceled the notification issued by the state government on June 11, 2019. Read the news…
