New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to reconsider whether further relaxation or reasonable accommodation could be granted in the confirmation test for probationary officers with benchmark disabilities, observing that the public sector bank should ensure the mandate of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016 is not defeated. A bench of Justices Navin Chawla and Madhu Jain was dealing with a petition filed by a visually impaired candidate who was terminated from service after failing to clear the confirmation test twice.
The petitioner, who suffers from 100 per cent blindness and belongs to the OBC category, had joined the State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ) in 2015, which later merged with SBI. He challenged his termination and the legality of Rule 16 of the SBI Officers’ Service Rules, 1992, contending that it discriminated against persons with disabilities (PwDs) by treating them at par with general candidates.
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The petition argued that “equal treatment may lead to unequal results” and sought recognition of the “right to access to opportunity” as part of Article 21 of the Constitution. Rejecting the petitioner’s plea for reservation in the confirmation test, the Delhi High Court held that the RPwD Act “does not provide further reservation at that stage”, since reservation applies at the time of recruitment, not confirmation. While the Justice Chawla-led Bench rejected the petition to quash the rule and termination, it stressed that the SBI should act in line with the spirit of the RPwD Act.
“The respondents (bank authorities) cannot defeat the object of the RPwD Act or take away what it gives to the PwD due to the mandate of the Act,” the Delhi High Court said. It directed SBI to “consider if further relaxation can be given in the confirmation test for purposes of accommodating the petitioner and other PwD candidates or further and reasonable accommodation can be given to such candidates in the manner or mode of the confirmation test so as to ensure that the mandate of the RPwD Act is not defeated.
” The Justice Chawla-led Bench granted the bank four weeks to take a decision and communicate it to the petitioner, adding that if a more relaxed standard or modified testing mode is introduced, “the same benefit shall be extended to the petitioner by giving him another chance to participate in the screening test”.