Chandigarh, January 27-
The Punjab State Commission for Scheduled Castes today stayed the implementation of a contentious letter dated 10/10/2014 pertaining to Roster points.
Divulging more details, the Chairperson of Commission Mrs Tejinder Kaur said that this matter came into notice of Commission through the 45th report (2019-2020) of the Welfare Committee of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes of Punjab Vidhan Sabha. She said that Commission held several rounds of deliberations with departments of Personnel, Social Justice and Minorities during which documents related to issuance of this letter were examined. Mrs Tejinder Kaur said that during scrutiny of documents it came into light that this letter was issued by Department of Personnel on its own by violating its jurisdiction set by Punjab government through the Allocation of Bussiness Rules 2007.
The Chairperson said that as per directions of Supreme Court of India in M Nagraj versus Government of India regarding compelling reasons and approval of Punjab Cabinet and Punjab Vidhan Sabha regarding conditions for compelling reasons in 2018, the 85th amendment of the constitution (which was never rolled back by Punjab government) was legally valid and every department was duty bound for implementing it in true letter and spirit. She said that this letter has done castigating effect on the rights of Scheduled Caste employees.
