Supreme Court sets aside High Court order on 75 per cent quota in private sector jobs for Haryana residents

Bench directs the Haryana Government not to take any coercive steps against the employers and makes it clear that the law will be applicable prospectively

Supreme court. File photo

Tribune News Service

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 17

The Supreme Court on Thursday quashed the Punjab and Haryana High Court order staying a Haryana law providing for 75 per cent reservation to local candidates in private sector jobs in the state.

“The impugned order dated 3rd February, 2022 passed by the High Court is set aside as the High Court has not given sufficient reasons for staying the legislation,” said a Bench led by Justice LN Rao.

“Courts are reluctant to pass interim orders staying legislations. Stay of legislation can only be when the Court is of the opinion that it is manifestly unjust or glaringly unconstitutional,” it noted.

The Bench directed the Haryana Government not to take any coercive steps against the employers and made it clear that the law will be applicable prospectively.

Refusing to get into the merits of the case, it requested the High Court to decide the matter expeditiously within four weeks and asked the parties to appear before the high court on February 22 for fixing the schedule of hearing. The parties should not seek adjournments, it added.

The order came on Haryana Government’s petition challenging the February 3 Punjab and Haryana High Court order staying the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020.

Notified in November last year, the law provides for 75 per cent reservation for local youth in private sector jobs that offer a monthly salary of less than Rs 30,000 from January 15, 2022. Various industry associations from Faridabad, Gurugram and other places have challenged it before the high court.

On behalf of Haryana Government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that the high court’s order staying the domicile quota law was contrary to the law laid down by the Supreme Court.

Contending that there was a presumption of legality in favour of the law and it’s ordinarily not stayed unless it’s prima facie unconstitutional or manifestly illegal, Mehta pointed out that no reasons was given by the high court while staying the domicile quota law.

Senior advocates Dushyant Dave and Shyam Divan, representing industry associations, said that over 48,000 companies registered in Haryana would face immense hardship as they can’t employ anybody from outside the state from the date of commencement of the Act.

The petitioners before the high court have contended that the Act under challenge was against the provisions of the Constitution and went against the basic principle of meritocracy that acted as the foundation for businesses to grow and remain competitive.

The Haryana government wanted to create reservation in the private sector by introducing the policy of ‘Sons of Soil’, which was an infringement of constitutional rights of the employers, they submitted.

They argued that private sector jobs were purely based on the skills and analytical blend of mind of the employees who were citizens of India having constitutional rights on the basis of their education to work in any part of India.

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