The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court (HC) has stayed the recruitment process being conducted by the postal department. During the entrance examination conducted at 26 centres across the state on March 29, some visually impaired students in Osmanabad were denied entry on the grounds that they were accompanied by writers/scribe having qualification above std X. Thereafter, five visually impaired students had approached the court.
In January this year, the postal department had invited online applications from eligible candidates for direct recruitment for the posts of postman/mail guard in postal/RMS divisions.
The department's notification clearly provided specific reservation for visually impaired candidates. Accordingly, the eligible visually impaired candidates applied by January 24 and were provided online admit cards soon.
Lawyer Swapnil Tawshikar, who filed a writ petition in the HC on behalf of the aggrieved party, told TOI, "In the list of instructions mentioned on the admit cards, visually impaired candidates were allowed to take assistance of scribe/writers for the said examination. However, 25 such candidates, who reached the exam centre in Osmanabad, were not allowed to appear for the examination on the ground that the writers brought by them had education qualification above matriculation."
Vishal Lohare (24), a native of from Latur district, along with four students decided to represent the 25 candidates who were not allowed to appear for the examination. All the five candidates approached the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay HC and filed a writ petition through lawyers Tawshikar and Anant Devakate. Tawshikar said the HC bench comprising justices SS Shinde and PR Bora heard the matter on April 10. The lawyers told the court the guidelines issued by the central government make it clear that visually impaired people can take assistance of writers while appearing for any written examination. The guidelines further mention that there shall be no restrictions on education qualifications, marks and age of the writer.
Source:-The Times of India
