An exterior view of the Punjab & Haryana High Court
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
After the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the Haryana government’s law guaranteeing 75% reservation in private sector jobs for residents of the State, the Opposition parties have upped their ante against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) coalition government. The Opposition has blamed the Haryana government for not pursuing the case strongly in the court. Meanwhile, the Haryana government is planning to move the Supreme Court against the High Court verdict.
On Saturday, Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala said that the State government will soon approach the Supreme Court against the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the employment law. “We are examining the decision of the High Court, only after which the government will go to the Supreme Court,” he said in a statement.
“The employment law is very important for providing employment to the youth of Haryana and promoting industries. The government had made the law only with the consent and consultation of the industrialists,” he added.
The domicile quota in private sector employment was an electoral promise made by the JJP in the 2019 Assembly election. The High Court’s decision, coming ahead of next year’s Parliamentary and State elections, is seen as a major setback to the BJP-JJP coalition government in the State.
Taking a dig at the BJP-JJP government, Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda, accused the government of not strongly advocating in favour of the law in the court. “The BJP-JJP government never had any intention of giving 75% reservation to the youth of Haryana in the private sector. It was all just a sham. The BJP-JJP turned out to be the government that gave the highest unemployment rate to Haryana’s youth in the country,” he said.
All India Congress secretary, Vineet Punia also questioned the sincerity of the BJP-JJP in Haryana in ensuring reservation of jobs for local youth in the private sector.
Echoing the sentiment, Indian National Lok Dal leader and MLA Abhay Singh told journalists that the JJP had betrayed the State’s youth. He added that the party should apologise to Haryana’s public.
The Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020, which came into force on January 15 last year, made it mandatory for employers in the State to reserve 75% of jobs paying less than ₹30,000 a month for domiciled residents.