The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Centre and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to explain how they were selecting candidates for the Civil Services mains exam and subsequent interview without declaring the actual number of vacancies, particularly for the disabled category.
A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh remarked, “When your vacancies are fluctuating, how many people will you call for the mains and interview? If you have power to call any number of candidates for mains and interviews without declaring the actual vacancies, it is known as arbitrariness.”
The court also directed the Centre and the UPSC to explain why there was a difference of eight vacancies for disabled in the notification advertised by it against what is calculated by NGO, Sambhavana, a registered society of the disabled for the disabled.
It, however, declined the plea to stay the mains exam, which is scheduled between January 8 and 17.
Vacancies for disabled
Sambhavana, in its plea, has claimed that the UPSC reserved only 24 vacancies for persons with disabilities out of a total 796 ‘expected approximate vacancies’.
The NGO said this was below the 4% mandatory reservation under Section 34 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016. The plea added that 4% of 796 vacancies works out to 32.
The petition further said that the UPSC’s notice was “illegal as what is certain and clear for the disabled under the RPwD Act, 2016, is made vague, ambiguous and uncertain by the device of expected approximate vacancies”.
“The notice becomes a fraud on the RPwD Act since it gives 4% reservation of 796 expected approximate vacancies. To reserve something of that which does not legally exist is to legally give nothing,” Sambhavana said.
Another petitioner in the case, Evara Foundation, in its plea, has contended that the number of seats reserved for visually impaired, deaf and hard of hearing and locomotor disabilities was not in accordance with the RPwD Act.
The court will hear the case again on January 29.
