High Court sets aside Haryana law of 75% reservation in industries for locals

Chandigarh: With the Assembly elections in Haryana less than a year away, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday quashed the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act of 2020, which enabled 75 per cent reservation in industries for local residents.

A bench of Justices Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia and Harpreet Kaur Jeewan passed the order on a petition of the Faridabad Industries Association and others.

Fulfilling one of the key poll promise made by Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), a coalition partner of the BJP, a law that provides 75 per cent reservation in the private sector to job seekers from the state came into effect on January 15, 2022. It envisaged reservation for local youth in the private sector with an upper limit of gross monthly salary up to Rs 30,000.

One of the petitions contended that the impugned Act is against the provisions of the Constitution and also against the basic principle of meritocracy that acted as the foundation for businesses to grow and remain competitive.

The government wanted to create reservation in private sector by introducing policy of "Sons of Soil", which was infringement of the constitutional rights of the employers, said a petitioner.

The 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, added the petitioner.

The reservation law was applicable for 10 years. The government also relaxed the residency requirement from 15 to five years for a person to get a bona-fide resident certificate in the state to provide some flexibility to the private companies in hiring.