80 percent nursing seats for women: Delhi HC says women reservation long overdue, seeks AIIMS, Centre's reply

New Delhi:  Delhi High Court on Thursday observed that women reservation has been overdue for a long time while issuing notice to the Centre and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on a plea seeking quashing of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) judgment upholding the medical institute's decision reserving 80 percent of nursing officers' seats for women.

"Reservation for women under Article 15 (3) of the Constitution has been long overdue," a division bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh observed.

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The court asked AIIMS and the Centre to file a reply on the plea filed by three nursing officer candidates' Harish Kumar Kajla, Rajesh Kumhar and Krishna Kumar Bohra. The court listed the matter for further hearing on February 22, 2021.

The court also observed that the matter relates to nursing staff which has been generally held by women.

Advocate Anand Varma, appearing for AIIMS, accepted the notice and urged the court to grant time to file a response.

The petition filed by the three men sought quashing of CAT's judgment. CAT had upheld AIIMS's decision to reserve 80 percent of over 4,600 posts in nursing staff for women.

The petitioners' advocate Santhosh Krishnan told the court that despite having such a high percentage, these male candidates were not getting appointed due to this women reservation policy. The petitioner told the court that the recruitment drive relates to vacancies in 12 AIIMS in the country.

The petition said that this reservation by the medical institute violates the 50 per cent overall ceiling contemplated for reservation in public employment and it cannot be exceeded.

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