The story so far: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on November 17 quashed a law enacted by the Haryana government in 2021 that guaranteed 75% reservation to locals in private sector jobs in Haryana. A division bench of Justices G. S. Sandhawalia and Harpreet Kaur Jeewan ruled that the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020, was unconstitutional and violated Part III of the Constitution that envisages fundamental rights. The court clarified that the legislation would become ‘ineffective from the date it came into force’.
The law providing domicile quota in private sector employment was an electoral promise made by the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) in the 2019 Assembly election. The High Court’s decision is seen as a major setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-JJP coalition government in the State ahead of next year’s Parliamentary and State elections. Soon after the verdict, Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala said in a statement that the State government would soon approach the Supreme Court against the decision of the High Court. ‘The employment law is very important for providing employment to the youth of Haryana and promoting industries. The government had made the law only with the consent and consultation of the industrialists’, he added.
In light of these developments, The Hindu decodes what this controversial reservation law is, why industrialists are opposed to it and why was it ultimately struck down by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
