Plea in Karnataka High Court challenges Civil Judge recruitment notification for failure to provide reservation for blind, low vision category

The Karnataka High Court on Monday sought the response of the High Court and the State government on a plea challenging a notification issued to fill up 94 posts of civil judges in Karnataka, on the ground that it does not reserve posts for persons with blindness and low vision..A Bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj issued notice to the Registrar General and Secretary Civil Judges recruitment committee (High court committee), State government, and the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms. .The petition filed in this regard submitted that the notification issued by the High court committee for filling up 94 posts of civil judges was in complete violation of the provisions of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. The 2016 Act, it was contended, mandates that 4 percent of posts should be reserved for persons with disabilities out of which 1/4th seats should be for persons with blindness and low vision. .The petitioners further highlighted that the High Court committee reserved 1 percent of posts for civil judge only for persons with orthopedic disability and not for persons with blindness and low vision.“The action of the Respondent No.1 in reserving only 1% of posts for civil judge only for orthopedic disability and not for persons with Blindness and low vision when the same post has been identified as being suitable for them by the Central Government Expert Committee is clearly arbitrary and unreasonable," the petition stated. .When the matter was taken up for hearing, Senior Advocate Jayna Kothari, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that blind persons and persons with low vision are capable of being considered for the post of Civil Judge. She relied on a Central government notification dated January 4, 2021, which had identified the Group A post of a Civil Judge, suitable for persons with blindness and low vision..In this regard, Kothari also placed reliance on the Supreme Court judgment in Vikash Kumar v. UPSC & Others.The Court while issuing notice observed that the date of inviting application for the said notification has lapsed.“Date cannot be extended…If we do that, it will be contrary to the Supreme Court Judgment in Malik Mazhar Sultan. All recruitment is overseen by the Supreme Court. Even few Registrar Generals were summoned in some cases by the Supreme Court. You know what happened then,” the Bench remarked..The petitioners further submitted that the respondents failed to recognize that with the support of the new technology, persons with blindness and low vision can also perform various tasks at par with the others.On these grounds, the petition sought quashing of the notification.That apart, the plea also prayed for direction to direct the authorities to provide for 4 percent reservation in the current vacancies of 94 posts in the present recruitment of Civil Judges.The matter will be heard again on June 28.