Allahabad High Court: The Division Bench of Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Rajnish Kumar, JJ. dismissed a PIL which was filed by the petitioner society with the prayer that the respondents may be directed to enhance the age of retirement from 60 to 62 years in respect of the employees of the State Government who are differently abled.
Counsel for the petitioner submitted that in the State of Punjab as also in the State of Haryana, the age of retirement of differently abled government employees is 62 years and hence, State of Uttar Pradesh may also be directed to enhance the age of retirement from 60 to 62 years of differently abled government employees working in the State of U.P. . It was their contention that by not extending the age of superannuation from 60 to 62 years the Government of U.P. is subjecting its differently abled government employees to hostile discrimination and in terms of the provisions contained in Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 the differently abled persons in the State of U.P. are entitled to be given the same treatment.
Assistant Solicitor General of India appearing for the Union of India and State Counsel opposing this PIL have unanimously submitted that the prayer made in this PIL essentially pertains to service matter and as per the settled position of law, no PIL can be entertained in relation to service-related matters and accordingly the writ petition is liable to be dismissed .
The Court relied on Girjesh Shrivastava v. State of Madhya Pradesh, (2010) 10 SCC 707, Duryodhan Sahoo (Dr.) v. Jitendra Kumar Mishra, (1998) 7 SCC 273, B. Srinivasa Reddy v. Karnataka Urban Water Supply & Drainage Board Employees’ Assn., (2006) 11 SCC 731 and Dattaraj Nathuji Thaware v. State of Maharashtra, (2005) 1 SCC 590 where the Supreme Court had reiterated the legal principle that in service matters, no Public Interest Litigation can be entertained.
The Court opined that this Public Interest Litigation was not maintainable observing, “It is equally well settled that except where a writ of Quo Warranto is prayed for, Public Interest Litigation in service-related matters ought not to be entertained.”
The Court further clarified that no doubt that Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 has been framed by the Parliament for empowerment of the persons with disabilities and the said Act clearly mandates that differently abled persons cannot be discriminated against. However, such non-discrimination which runs across the Act, 2016 has to be read in the context. The Act 2016 was framed to make a law prohibiting all kinds of discrimination of differently abled persons in the society and also for ensuring their effective participation and inclusion in the society as also for creating an environment where there will be respect for the difference such differently abled persons bear and also to create equality of opportunity etc.
The PIL was dismissed.
[Ramkali Samajik Utthan Evan Jan Kalyan Samiti v. Union of India, Public Interest Litigation (PIL) No. – 487 of 2022, decided on 10-08-2022]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Birendra Kumar Yadav, Amit Kumar, Satendra Jaiswal, Advocates, for the Petitioner;
S.B. Pandey, Advocates, for the Respondent.
*Suchita Shukla, Editorial Assistant has reported this brief.