Court expands reservation for PwD

Our Correspondent

Kohima, Dec. 13 (EMN): The Gauhati High Court, Kohima bench has modified its judgement passed in the month of November, extending the reservation of one post each for Extra Assistant Commissioner (EAC) and Secretariat Assistant (SA), to “physically challenged persons”, which was earlier limited to visually impaired persons only.

The High Court (HC) clarified that one post each of EAC and SA, “shall not necessarily be for the visually disabled or impaired persons alone but shall be as may be determined by the state government in accordance with Sections 33 and 34 of the Act of 2016 (Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016)”.

Further, it directed that the two posts (one EAC and one SA post) “be declared and filled-up after the state government completes the identification of posts to be reserved for the physically challenged persons as mandated under Sections 33 and 34 of the Act of 2016”.

Earlier on November 13, the HC had directed that one post each for EAC and SA, out of 15 posts and 40 posts respectively, be “reserved for visually disabled or impaired persons.” The court had passed the judgement, in relation to the case of Toviholi Sumi (visually impaired), assisted by Nagaland State Legal Services Authority, who had filed a writ petition at the Guwahati High Court, for the aforesaid post reservation for visually disabled or impaired person.

In the same judgement made last month, the Gauhati High Court, Kohima bench, had also directed the government of Nagaland to take appropriate action as per Section 33 and 34 of the Act of 2016 and other provisions of the act, within a period of five months so that the provisions of the act can be fully implemented in the state.