The Orissa High Court has directed the State Government to come out with the list of posts reserved for persons with disabilities in all the government departments in three months and fill up the existing vacancies later in the PwD category.

“Having regard to Section 34 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPWD Act) Act, we direct the State Government to publish the roster in each Department showing posts under 4 per cent reservation for the persons with disabilities (PwDs) in terms of the above provisions as extracted above. The entire exercise shall be completed within a period of three months from 23 August.

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After the roster is published, vacancies that will be available to be filled up by the PWDs shall be filled up within the next six months without fail,” the Division Bench of Chief Justice S Talapatra and Justice Savitri Ratho ordered.

The Division bench hearing the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Damodar Kar passed the order.

The PIL raised a serious question of public interest to the effect that the Government of Odisha has, even though, constituted a Committee by the Notification dated 24th May, 2022 , but till now the Committee has not identified the posts for reservation for the persons with benchmark disabilities or other disabilities.

It has been submitted that Section 33 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPWD Act) provides that the State Government shall “constitute an expert committee with representation of persons with benchmark disabilities for identification of such posts” and to “undertake periodic review of the identified posts at an interval not exceeding three years.”

The purpose of constituting that Committee is to carry out the mandate of the RPWD Act as provided under Section 34 that “every appropriate Government shall appoint in every Government establishment, not less than four per cent of the total number of vacancies in the cadre strength in each group of posts meant to be filled with persons with benchmark disabilities of which, one percent each shall be reserved for persons with benchmark disabilities under clauses (a), (b) and (c) and one per cent for persons with benchmark disabilities.