Government establishments alone are mandated under disability legislation; cooperatives do not fall within its purview.

COMMON JUDGMENT

Heard.

2. The petitioner is the same in both writ petitions. In the first writ petition, W.P.(MD) No. 22401 of 2017, the petitioner, an employee of the respondent Cooperative Society, sought a direction to the Society to consider his representation dated 30.09.2017 and to appoint him as Junior Assistant with salary benefits from 03.07.1999. According to the petitioner, he had been working as a Junior Assistant in the Cooperative Society since 06.02.1992 and his services had been regularised. However, on 29.11.1998, he met with an accident resulting in the amputation of his right hand. Thereafter, when he reported for duty, the Society offered him only the post of Office Assistant and, by letter dated 01.07.1999, called upon him to convey his willingness to accept the said post.

3. According to the petitioner, he was entitled to protection under the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 (Act 1 of 1996). Section 47 of the said Act provides as follows:-

“47. Non-discrimination in Government Employment - (1) No establishment shall dispense with, or reduce in rank, an employee who acquires a disability during his service:

Provided that, if an employee, after acquiring disability is not suitable for the post he was holding, could be shifted to some other post with the same pay scale and service benefits:

Provided further that if it is not possible to adjust the employee against any post, he may be kept on a supernumerary post until a suitable post is available or he attains the age of superannuation, whichever is earlier.

(2) No promotion shall be denied to a person merely on the ground of his disability:

Provided that the appropriate Government may, having regard to the type of work carried on in any establishment, by notification and subject to such conditions, if any, as may be specified in such notification, exempt any establishment from the provisions of this section.”

4. However, the establishments to which the Act applies are defined under Section 2(k) of the Act, which reads as follows:-

"establishment" means a corporation established by or under a Central, Provincial or State Act, or an authority or a body owned or controlled or aided by the Government or a local authority or a Government company as defined in section 617 of the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956) and includes Departments of a Government;

5. The Hon’ble Supreme Court, after examining Section 2(k) of the Act, held that its provisions are applicable only to Government and Government-controlled establishments, and not to private bodies, in its decisionDalco Engineering Pvt. Ltd. v. Satish Prabhakar Padhye & Ors., reported in2010 (4) SCC 378 . The relevant passage from paragraphs 15 and 16 of the judgment reads as follows:-

“15. We agree that the socio-economic legislations should be interpreted liberally. It is also true that Courts should adopt different yardsticks and measures for interpreting socio-economic statutes, as compared to penal statutes, and taxing statutes. But a caveat. The courts cannot obviously expand the application of a provision in a socio- economic legislation by judicial interpretation, to levels unintended by the legislature, or in a manner which militates against the provisions of the statute itself or against any constitutional limitations. In this case, there is a clear indication in the statute, that the benefit is intended to be restricted to a particular class of employees, that is employees of enumerated establishments (which fall within the scope of `state' under Article 12. Express limitations placed by the socio-economic statute can not be ignored, so as to include in its application, those who are clearly excluded by such statute itself. We should not lose sight of the fact that the words "corporation established by or under a Central, Provincial or State Act" is a term used in several enactments, intended to convey a standard meaning. It is not a term which has