: Acting on a complaint by a visiting faculty member, the Court of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (PwD) has recently recommended that the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) fill its teaching vacancies and reserve 4% of posts for Persons with Disabilities.
Petitioner Vijay Garg, an alumnus of SPA and a visiting faculty member since 2005, had alleged that despite advertising Group A teaching posts many times, no PwD candidate was appointed by SPA since 2008. Mr. Garg, who is a person with 40% locomotor disability, said he had been selected and interviewed for vacancies over the years but never appointed.
In its order on May 6, the court said it did not have the mandate to examine any person’s eligibility for a post, so it would not interfere in the matter of Mr. Garg’s appointment.
“As far as vacant posts are concerned, it is evident from the submissions made by the respondent [SPA] that since 2008, each time the respondent carried out recruitment process, vacancies remain unfilled, including those posts which were reserved for divyangjan [PwD]. To keep posts vacant is a retrograde step. Respondent must make all efforts to fill the advertised vacancies,” the order stated.
The court recommended that SPA calculate the total number of Group A teaching vacancies, fill the backlog through a special recruitment drive “providing reasonable accommodations and relax criteria”, and 4% reservation for PwD.
According to the order, SPA had submitted that in 2019-2020, there were two vacancies for PwD and one remained vacant. Mr. Garg told The Hindu on Tuesday that the institute had filled one “relatively junior post” after he moved the court. SPA submitted that 31 out of 42 posts remained vacant in its 2008-2009 recruitment process; 33 out of 54 vacancies in 2012-2013 remained vacant; 39 out of 42 vacancies in 2014-2015 were unfilled, as were 13 out of 45 vacancies in 2019-2020.
SPA director Prof. P.S.N. Rao has not responded as yet to queries.
