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In the second case, the SC went on further to say that
the Government cannot force an employer to keep an
employee against his will or business need. The SC
overturned a Kerala High Court judgment stating that a
policy decision of the Government that affects its
employees must ensure rehabilitation of the workers it
has impacted.
In a third case, the SC quickly threw out a Public
Interest Litigation (PIL) asking it to force the State
Governments and Union Territories to accept the
reservation policy while filling vacancies in the
police force. The petition argued that apart from
reserving position for the Scheduled Caste and Tribe
in the 121,000 vacancies in the various police forces,
there should be relaxation of eligibility rules,
examinations, and criteria.
Reading the three judgments together, the SC has essentially
dispelled many myths in Indian policy making
circles.
Firstly, it exploded the myth that once a plan starts, the
Governments cannot stop or cancel it. This is an
argument used by many large Government apologists to
continue unsustainable programs or public sector units
that continue to loss money.
Secondly, Governments can layoff employees when they need to
provide they do not break the law in the process of
layoff. The common assumption is that once employees
are hired, they have a lifelong contract with the
Government irrespective of need, performance, or
expense.
Thirdly, the Government's policy on laying-off employees has to
ensure their rehabilitation. This is the humane aspect
of the ruling that while Governments has the right to
layoff employees; they have to ensure that those
employees get compensation, alternate employment, or
training. Many companies and Governments in the world
follow this practice.
Fourthly, Governments do not have a right to force employment
when businesses do not want a candidate. This is an
important ruling that will affect regional linguistic
demands being raised by myopic politicians to force a
preference on companies. Former Dharam Singh's
Government in Karnataka used this as a stick to beat
up corporate representation when they demanded better
infrastructure arguing that Kannadigas are not being
hired adequately in Information Technology and
Biotechnology companies.
Fifthly, the reservation policy cannot be uniformly applied at
will to all fields of life and to employment in
particular. This ruling will also stem the unbridled
enthusiasm with which the United Progressive
Government and its partners have been following both
at the Federal and State level to bring in divisive
legislation based on caste, religion, and sex and
across all spheres. They want reservation in the
judiciary, army, police, and private sector.
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