Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court declared that reservations for various social groups for single cadre posts is impermissible and that it will violate the principle of equality enshrined in Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.
Justice Nooty Ramamohana Rao was hearing a batch of petitions challenging a notification issued by the AP Cooperative Oil Seeds Growers’ Federation Ltd in 2007 to fill up manager cadre posts.
The petitioners claimed that there are seven different categories of manager/divisional officer in the federation and that the job requirement of each of these posts was vastly different from each other though they may carry identical scales of pay.
They submitted that the notification was issued by adding all the posts together for the purpose of applying reservation amongst various social groups like Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and others.
The federation contended that it had framed its own service regulations and as per Regulation 9 where appointments are made by direct recruitment, it has a right to reserve certain posts for specified categories or classes of persons in keeping with the rules or regulations in force.
After examining the law, Justice Ramamohana Rao said, “As the corporation is a public sector undertaking, it has to be careful when it undertakes direct recruitment. If, for any reason, the process of direct recruitment is at fault, the candidate who selected will get caught in the crossfire. A direct recruit candidate cannot be reverted back to any other lower post.”
Declaring that reservations are impermissible in single cadre posts the judge directed the federation to regulate its affairs properly from now on.
PIL filed on land regularisation
The decision of the Telangana government to regularise illegal occupants on government lands has been challenged before the Hyderabad High Court.
Professor P.L. Vishweshwar Rao and two others and Anwar Khan, a lecturer from the city moved two separate PILs challenging the GO Ms No: 58 and 59 issued on December 30, 2014 for regularisation of lands occupied illegally.
They said the action of the government was certainly encouraging to land grabbers and anti-social elements who grab government lands using fake documents.
Prof. Vishweshwar Rao told the court that there was a need to constitute a penal committee which can make a full fledged inquiry regarding the land occupants before regularisation and issuance of occupancy certificates and if the committee is constituted it will be possible to identify the deserving and land sharks.
Mr Anwar Khan urged the court to direct the government to initiate both criminal and civil proceedings against land grabbers who occupied government lands illegally and that they should be prosecuted under the Land Grabbing Act, 1982 and the AP Land Encroachment Act, 1905.
The petitioners said the GOs should not be implemented on the basis of the all-party meeting held on December 16, 2014 and urged the court to declare the GOs as illegal and arbitrary.
