Quota for visually impaired: HC raps Centre for not filing

The Delhi High Court today pulled up the Centre for not filing its reply on a PIL seeking quashing of an examination notice of the UPSC for the upcoming Civil Services Examination on the ground of non-compliance of one per cent quota for visually impaired applicants.
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice R S Endlaw also said that if the Centre fails to file its reply by August 14, then the Secretary from Department of Personnel (DoPT) and Training "will remain present before it in person".
"If no counter is filed by day after tomorrow, means on Thursday, August 14. The Secretary from Ministry of DoPT shall appear before this court in person with proper explanation," the court said.

The court direction came after the counsel for the Centre expressed his inability to file the reply.
"Why counter affidavit is not filed? Who is the concerned official present here? Why it is not filed?.
"It was a specific direction. It must have been filed by today on the basis of the records available with you. This cannot be tolerated in future," the court added.

On July 2, the high court had sought responses within four weeks from Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and DoPT on the petition filed by NGO Sambhavana, which works for disabled persons.
The UPSC yesterday submitted its reply stating that it has a "limited mandate" in conducting the civil services exams and reserving seats for physically-handicapped persons, including visually-impaired ones, in them.

"The Commission has a limited mandate to conduct the examination as per the rules notified by the government and to obtain vacancy figures from the Cadre Controlling Authorities (CCA) including those earmarked for physically handicapped (PH) categories, to collate the information and proceed accordingly with conducting the examination process," the affidavit, filed by UPSC's Under Secretary Imran Farid, had said.
The court was hearing a PIL seeking quashing of the civil services examination notice of May 31 on the ground of non-compliance of one per cent quota for visually-impaired applicants.