The High court of the state of Punjab and Haryana has declared on this Thursday that an interim stay shall be granted to the government’s law of providing 75% reservation in private sector jobs for residents of the state.
Justice Ajay Tewari and Pankaj Jain were on the bench that passed the order based on the petition filed by an industry association from Faridabad and another association from Haryana.
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Special Leave Petition
The state will also be filing a Special Leave Petition (SLP) against the order before the Supreme Court, said the Advocate General of Haryana, Jagbir Singh Malik.
The interim order is a relief for many companies in the state of Haryana as they feel like the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020 would have a bad effect on their future business operations and investments.
When was the act passed?
Last year, the Haryana government had notified people regarding this act of implementing 75% reservation for local people in private jobs with a monthly salary ceiling of ?50,000 which was to come into force from January 15, 2022.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section 3 of section I of the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act. 2020 (3 of 2021). the Governor of Haryana hereby specifies the 15th day of 2022 for the purposes of said sub-section,” the official notification stated.
The act provides reservation to 75% of new jobs for local candidates in various companies, societies, trusts, and limited liability partnership firms in the state.
Advocate Tushar Sharma’s response
Advocate Tushar Sharma was the counsel for one of the petitioners and said they have challenged the vires of the Act.
“I was representing one of the petitioners — IMT Manesar Association and Manesar Industrial Welfare Association. We were challenging vires of the Act, we were saying this Act is unconstitutional, discriminatory and violative of fundamental rights of our members and were seeking quashing of the Act. The court admitted the petition,” Sharma said over phone. “Seven to eight petitions had been filed challenging this Haryana Act. The Act has been kept in abeyance in a way,” he added.
Additionally Advocate General Malik, said while defending the law, the state’s stand was “that industries are getting various benefits including plots on concessional rates, then why should our youth not get the benefits in employment”. “The 75% reservation will result in moving out of tech companies, automotive companies, especially MNCs (multinational companies) as these are highly skilled manpower-based companies.”
CII’s Letter response
In a strongly worded response, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) had said that at a time when it is important to attract investments at the state level, governments should not impose restrictions on the industry. Reservation affects productivity and industry competitiveness.
It is their hope the government re-looks the legislation or at least ensures the rules are fair. As one country, there should be no imposition or restriction, the letter added.
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