High court asks Haryana why it has no 4% quota for disabled lawyers in AG’s office?

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court has asked the Haryana govt to explain why reservation of 4% has not been directed for the lawyers falling under the disabled category in the appointment of law officers in the office of the Advocate General (AG), Haryana.
A division bench comprising Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and Justice Meenakshi I Mehta passed these orders following a petition filed by advocate Mohit Garg, who suffers from disabilities.
In his petition, Garg sought directions to provide reservation for the lawyers with disabilities in the appointment of law officers in the AG office.
During the hearing, the counsel for the petitioner, advocate Karan Nehra, informed the bench that the office of the Advocate General had been identified as one of the offices where a particular category with a certain benchmark of disability had been earmarked for providing the necessary reservation.
"We noticed that while the state of Punjab has provided reservation to the SC/BC category candidates for appointment as law officers, the advertisement issued by the office of the Advocate General, Haryana, for appointing law officers in the state of Haryana has not provided any kind of reservation to any category," the HC observed.
"Instructions in this regard may be taken, and this court may be informed as to why reservation ought not to be directed to be provided to the extent of 4% as per the scheme of the Act to the disabled category earmarked for the Advocate General office on coming selections for the post of law officers in the state of Haryana. A responsible official's affidavit should be filed in this regard before the next date of hearing," the court ordered.
Following the order, the counsel appearing for the state of Haryana requested time to get instructions from the state govt as to whether the state was ready to provide reservation to the disabled category in terms of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, which had been duly adopted, and the rules framed. The matter has now been adjourned for Feb 20 for further hearing.
Recently, the AG office, Haryana, invited applications for the posts of additional advocate generals, senior deputy advocate generals, deputy advocate generals, and assistant advocate generals. These law officers are appointed purely on a contractual basis to represent the state before the high court and other judicial bodies. The tenure of law officers is normally co-terminus with the ruling party in the state.