Supreme Court notice to Centre, Faridabad industry

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, February 5

The Supreme Court today issued notices to the Centre and the Faridabad Industries Association on the state government’s petition challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order striking down 75 per cent domicile quota in private sector jobs in the state.

A Bench led by Justice PS Narasimha asked the Centre and the association to respond to the Haryana Government’s petition challenging the November 17, 2023, HC order that held the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020, “unconstitutional” and “ineffective from the date it came into force”.

There’s a bar under the Constitution on discrimination against citizens in matters of employment on the basis of their place of birth and residence, the HC had noted.

The Act, which came into force on January 15, 2022, provided for 75 per cent reservation to candidates from the state in private sector jobs with a maximum gross monthly salary/wages up to Rs 30,000. Giving quota in private sector jobs was a key poll promise of the Jannayak Janta Party, a ruling coalition partner, in the 2019 elections.

The HC had said, “The underlying object of the legislation, as has been succinctly put by counsel for the petitioners, is to create an artificial gap and discrimination qua the citizens of India.”

On behalf of the Haryana Government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, however, questioned the HC’s verdict, saying it was devoid of reasoning.

The court had said it was beyond the purview of the state to legislate on the issue and restrict private employers from recruiting from the open market for the category of employees who were receiving less than Rs 30,000 a month. Constitutional morality had been openly violated by introducing a secondary status to a set of citizens not belonging to the state of Haryana and curtailing their fundamental rights to earn their livelihood, it had stated.

“Once there is a bar under the Constitution of India, we do not see any reason how the State can force a private employer to employ a local candidate as it would lead to a large-scale similar state enactments providing similar protection for their residents and putting up artificial walls throughout the country, which the framers of the Constitution had never envisaged,” it had noted.