In Brief
A. K. Nair, a person with 50% disability (post-polio paralysis), sought promotion to Assistant Manager in the Reserve Bank of India after falling 3 marks short in a 2003 departmental examination. The core issue was whether persons with disabilities are entitled to reservations and condonation benefits in promotional appointments under the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995. The Supreme Court held that 'appointment' in Section 33 of the 1995 Act includes promotion, and once a post is identified as suitable for a disabled person, it must be reserved irrespective of recruitment mode. The Court distinguished Indra Sawhney (which prohibited reservations in promotions for backward classes) as applying only to Article 16(4) vertical reservations, not Article 16(1) horizontal reservations for persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities are entitled to relaxed standards and condonation of marks at par with SC/ST candidates. The Court directed notional promotion to Nair from the writ petition date (27 September 2006) and actual promotion from 15 September 2014, with full monetary benefits and consideration in retiral computations.
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