New Delhi: The Supreme Court has set aside Punjab and Haryana High Court order staying the Haryana government's law on providing 75% reservation in private sector jobs for local candidates
The top court also directed the High Court to decide on the issue within a month and asked the state government not to take any coercive steps against the employers for the time being.
The apex court was hearing a plea by the Haryana government challenging the High Court's order which stayed the state government's law to reserve 75 per cent for local candidates in private sector jobs that offer a salary of less than Rs 30,000 a month.
The Haryana government had approached the apex court on February 4 challenging the High Court order.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the Haryana government has contended that the High Court's order of staying the law was passed after hearing the state for only 90 seconds.
The High Court on February 3 put on hold the Haryana government's law to reserve 75 per cent for local candidates in private sector jobs that offer a salary of less than Rs 30,000 a month. It had stayed the law as it failed to find merit in the state's arguments on treating the legislation as prima facie valid in the interests of the unemployed youths in the state.
The order of the High Court came on a petition challenging the vires of the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act 2020. The Act, notified on November 6, 2021, applies to all companies, Societies, Trusts, Limited Liability Partnership Firms, Partnership Firms, and any person employing ten or more persons, but excludes the Central Government or the State Government, or any organization owned by them.
The state government in its appeal before the top court has submitted that the Act makes a valid classification by grouping together local candidates who are unemployed and domiciled in Haryana, irrespective of their caste, creed, sex, place of origin or place of birth and their social status, so as to achieve the object of providing suitable employment in the private sector.
The appeal further stated that the Act makes a "geographical classification" on the basis of domicile and in furtherance of the fundamental right to life, livelihoods and health conditions of persons domiciled in the state. It claimed that there is no restraint against a state legislature from creating geographical classification to incentivise and grant concessions to citizens or industrial units.
(With ANI inputs)