The Delhi High Court on Friday criticised the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) for their exclusion of individuals who are deaf or 'hard of hearing' from the reservation in the teacher recruitment process, as per Bar & Bench. In their observation, a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula pointed out that when KVS issued the teacher recruitment advertisement in December 2022, they had overlooked both the statutory requirements and the most recent notification from the Central government.
“I don’t understand why we are hostile towards these people. I never thought Kendriya Vidyalayas would be doing all this. I feel sorry for the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan,” Justice Sharma remarked.
"I mentioned earlier that when I make a decision against Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, it carries significant personal weight. This is because I am a product of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan."
The Court issued these remarks while withholding its verdict on a petition filed by an entity called the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) challenging the advertisement and a concurrent suo motu public interest litigation on the matter. Upon learning that recruitments had occurred following the advertisement, the Court stated its intention to instruct KVS to address the backlog concerning individuals with disabilities.
“We will direct them to issue a fresh advertisement in respect of backlog vacancies…,” it said.
The legal counsel representing the KVS conveyed that a committee established by the organisation had advised against providing teaching positions to a specific category of individuals with disabilities. Nevertheless, the Court asserted that since the Centre had not granted KVS an exemption from adhering to the disability quota, they were not permitted to deviate from it.
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