New Delhi, Nov 17 : The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday allowed a bunch of petitions seeking the quashing of Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020, providing 75 per cent reservation in Haryana industries for the domiciles of the State. The order by the Bench of Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia and Justice Harpreet Kaur Jeewan came on a petition filed by Faridabad Industries Association and other petitioners.
Notified by the government in November 2021, it provided 75 per cent reservation for local youth in private sector jobs that offered monthly salary of less than Rs 30,000 from January 15, 2022. It covered private companies, societies, trusts and partnership firms in the State, as per a notification issued by the State government.
In one of the petitions challenging the reservation, it was submitted that the impugned Act was against the provisions of Constitution and also against the basic principle of meritocracy that acted as the foundation for businesses to grow and remain competitive.
The petitioners submitted the Haryana Government wanted to create reservation in private sector by introducing policy of “Son of Soils”, which was infringement of the constitutional rights of the employers. It was stated that private sector jobs were purely based on the skills and analytical blend of mind of the employees who were citizen of India having constitutional rights on the basis of their education to do jobs in any part of India.
“The act of the respondent forcing the employers to employ local candidates in private sector vide this bill impugned Act is the violation of the federal structure framed by the Constitution of India, whereby Government cannot act contrary to public interest and cannot benefit one class…,” it was added.
The Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020, was passed by the Haryana State Legislative Assembly on March 2, 2021, before being approved by the Governor. A notification was issued by the State labour department on November 6, 2021.
