New Delhi, Jan 30 (PTI) The Railway Board has directed all its zones and production units to grant notional promotion to employees with disabilities with effect from June 30, 2016.
The board, in a communication dated January 18, said that the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had issued instruction in this regard on December 28 last year and all the railway zones should follow it for non-gazetted posts.
Such posts for which notional promotion can be granted have already been identified by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment as well as the Railway Board, the communication said.
The DoPT instruction has not clarified what notional promotion means.
Explaining what notional promotion means, National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR) general secretary M Raghavaiah said, "The employees will be promoted with effect from June 30, 2016 but will not get any arrears. They will get the hiked salary from the actual date of promotion."
Disability rights advocates and activists have welcomed the decision, calling it a worthy move by the government as well as the railways.
"This was long overdue and unnecessarily delayed despite explicit directions from the Supreme Court. Finally, affirmative actions are being given their rightful due," Dr Satendra Singh, Director Professor at the University College of Medical Sciences and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, said.
The issue of reservation in promotion for persons with benchmark disabilities (PwBDs) was under litigation in various courts of law for the past few years.
The Supreme Court for the first time on June 30, 2016 directed the government to implement the provisions of the Persons With Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 which mandated three per cent reservations for PwBDs in all identified posts.
The matter, which then went to a larger bench of the apex court for reconsideration, was finally settled on January 14, 2020 in which the court asked the government to abide by its June 30, 2016 order.
Meanwhile, the 1995 Act was replaced with the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 to make it compliant with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
The government filed an application in the SC, pleading with it to clarify which Act to follow for the implementation of its June 30, 2016 order among other issues.
The court, on September 28, 2021, clarified and asked the government to issue instructions regarding reservation in promotion according to the 2016 Act.
Pursuant to the clarification order, the DoPT on May 17, 2022 issued detailed instructions for extending the benefit of reservation in promotion to PWDs.
However, a contempt petition was filed in the SC alleging that the government started the implementation of the court's order not from the date of its pronouncement, i.e. June 30, 2016, but from July 15, 2023.
The apex court issued another direction to the government on July 18, 2023, and asked it to implement it from the date of June 30, 2016.
After that, the DoPT and the Department of Legal Affairs issued detailed instructions on December 28, 2023 for providing notional promotion to PwD candidates with effect from June 30, 2016 in posts and services of the central government.
The Board has now asked all its zones to abide by the instructions and provide promotion for the identified posts.