NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside the February 3 interim order of the Punjab & Haryana High Court staying the Haryana law providing 75% reservation to domiciles in private sector jobs and reverted the petitions to the Haryana & Punjab High Court to decide the matter within four weeks.
It also restrained the State government from taking any coercive action against private companies which were not adhering to the quota law.
Justice L. Nageswara Rao, who is heading the bench with Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha, observed that the matter concerns country's economic integration and four crore migrant labourers.
Through its 2020 law, the Haryana Government had reserved 75% posts for local residents for group C and D posts with a salary cap of Rs. 30,000 per month. The Act, notified on November 6, 2021, applies to all companies, societies, trusts, limited liability partnership firms, partnership firms, and any person employing ten or more persons, but excludes the Central Government or the State Government, or any organization owned by them.
Asking the Haryana & Punjab HC to decide the matter in four weeks, the Apex Court said: “We have four crore migrant labourers in the country, it concerns their livelihood. It gives rise to serious other issues." Justice Nageswar Rao went by the solicitor general's observation on Monday that the High Court had stayed the law without assigning any reason. The court also agreed with private factory owners who are opposing the law that there were substantial grounds to contest the law.
Initially, the court had felt that it can transfer to itself all petitions pending before different High Courts challenging similar
laws passed by Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Jharkhand and decide them in one go. However, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that he will make an application for the transfer, but he wanted the SC to first vacate the Punjab & Haryana HC's interim order.
However, senior lawyers Dushyant Dave and Shyam Divan, appearing for Faridabad Industries Association and Manesar Industries Welfare Association, respectively, favoured the top court transferring the challenge to laws passed by other States but resisted any stay of interim order of the High Court. Divan said if the High Court order is to be vacated, then private sector outfits should be protected from any coercive action by the State as provided under the reservation law. The court heeded their demand.
Defending the interim order staying the Haryana law, Dave told the court that in the past the top court too had had also stayed laws passed by Parliament; he specially referred to the stay of farms laws which, in the face of the farmers’ agitation, were eventually repealed by the Modi government.
Dave said the laws providing reservation for locals defeated the idea of India as an economic unit and wondered what would happen if other States also follow the footprints of Haryana law. He said the Haryana Assembly has no legislative competence to enact such a law. He said that as far as public sector undertakings are concerned, Parliament alone can enact laws in respect of them.
Elaborating the consequences of the law, Dave said a law firm in Gurugram cannot take junior lawyers from outside the State as it is mandated to recruit 75% of its staff, including lawyers who are domiciles of Haryana. Similarly, if a private industry needs a fitter from outside Haryana, then, under the law, it has to apply for permission and the State government will take months before accepting or rejecting the application.
