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Karnataka HC raps govt for asking employees with disability to come to work

The Karnataka government had issued an order directing 50% of government employees with disabilities to report to work on alternate days.

The Karnataka High Court reprimanded the state government over a circular dated January 5 directing 50% of people with disabilities who are government employees to report for work on alternate days. The court made the observation while hearing a petition filed by the Karnataka Federation of the Blind challenging the government order dated May 18, 2020, wherein all the government employees of Group A, B, C and D were instructed to report for duty with 100% capacity.

The High Court of Karnataka on November 27 had directed the Karnataka government to reconsider the May 18 order directing all state government employees to report to their offices. The court cited the difficulties faced, especially by the visually-impaired, in following COVID-19 safety norms. Following this, the Karnataka government on January 5 issued another order instructing 50% of government employees who have disabilities should report for work on alternate days.

On Wednesday, the case once again came up for hearing before the division bench of Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum, who said that the government has passed the ‘order without applying mind’.

The court again told the government to reconsider the decision of making government employees, especially people with visual impairments to report for duty. “Firstly, we don’t understand this rationale of saying that 50 percent of the blind persons should work. Either 100 percent should work or 100 percent should not work,” the court said in an oral remark, Bar and Bench reported.

The court also made an observation that the state government did not take into account the memorandum of the government of India dated October 2020 which allowed pregnant women and people with disabilities to continue to work from home.

Even during the court hearing last week, the state government said that it has ordered only 50% of the people with disabilities to appear for work on alternate days on January 5. The bench, however, questioned the logic, and pointed out that making people with disabilities report to work is jeopardizing their safety, given that Bengaluru still reports over 400 cases every day.

The Court making the observations told the state government to reconsider the January 5 order and postponed the case for further hearing to February 1.

Source: The News Minute