AP Abdullakutty appointed Kerala BJP Vice President
Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 22: Former Kannur MP A P Abdullakutty,who recently joined the BJP,has been appointed as the state Vice President of the saffron party's Kerala unit.
The announcement was made by party state President P S Sreedharan Pillai at a press conference here.
"Abdullakutty has been appointed as the state vice president of the party,'' he said.
Pillai also dismissed the various exit poll results by various media houses on the outcome of the bypolls to five assembly constituencies in Kerala held on Monday, predicting that the BJP-NDA would not fare well.
"We do not subscribe to the current exit poll results brought out by many media channels.
That's not the original position," he said adding the voting percentage had gone down due to the rains.
Meanwhile, reacting to his elevation as the party's state Vice President, Abdullakutty said that the BJP had given him a huge responsibility.
"Yes my ideologies have changed and I will work for the betterment of the people of Kerala. It's a huge responsibility," he told reporters.
A two-time CPI(M) MP, Abdullakutty was first expelled from the Left party in 2009 for expressing admiration for Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister.
Kutty later joined the Congress and was elected to the state assembly twice.
The Congress had on June 3 this year expelled him from the party days after he lavished praise on the Prime minister for the BJP-led NDA's massive victory in the 2019 general election.
In a Facebook post, Abdullakutty had said the NDA's victory was an acceptance of Modi's development agenda and the secret of his success was that he adopted Gandhian values.
Ex Congress leader A.P Abdullakkutty and present SNDP Yogam Assistant Secretary K. A. Bahuleyan appointed Vice President and Secretary respectively of @BJP4Keralam pic.twitter.com/IinhL8Vc7u
— BJP KERALAM (@BJP4Keralam) October 22, 2019
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Unreserved vacancies for candidates with disabilities open for all categories: SC
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday said "unreserved" vacancies for Persons with Disabilities (PWD) are an open pool where merit remains the decisive factor and that eligible candidates belonging to any social or special category can be employed.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N Kotiswar Singh set aside a judgement of the Calcutta High Court, saying the "unreserved" category is not a separate "social category" but an open field for all.
It held that a more meritorious PWD candidate belonging to a reserved category like OBC, SC, or ST cannot be barred from an unreserved PWD post simply because a candidate from the "General" category is also available.
"In reservation law, it is well settled that the Unreserved/Open category does not refer to any social/communal category like SCs, STs or OBC. In other words, any post falling under the Unreserved or Open category does not pertain to any particular social category, it provides an open field or pool meant for the world at large, in the sense that it is open to all candidates, irrespective of whether one belongs to any social or special category or not," Justice Singh, who authored the verdict, said.
The court said if an unreserved or open post is meant for the special category of Persons with Disabilities, it means that the said post will be open to all candidates of all vertical social categories, whether Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) or Other Backward Classes (OBC), provided such candidates are also PWD.
"Thus, all candidates, whether SC, ST or OBC, but who are Persons with Disabilities, are equally entitled to compete for the post meant for Persons with Disabilities falling under the Unreserved category, the rationale being that all those who are similarly situated must be treated equally," it said.
The case arose from a recruitment drive of the West Bengal State Electricity Transmission Company Limited (WBSETCL) for the post of Junior Engineer (Civil) Grade-II.
The notification included one post specifically earmarked for Unreserved (Persons with Disabilities -- Low Vision).
The controversy involved two candidates, an unreserved category candidate with low vision who scored 55.667 marks and an OBC candidate, also with low vision, who scored 66.667 marks.
The WBSETCL appointed the OBC candidate to the post based on his higher merit.
This was challenged by the general category candidate who said since he was a "qualified unreserved candidate", the vacancy should have gone to him and that reserved category candidates should only be considered if no unreserved PWD candidate is available.
While a single-judge bench of the high court dismissed the plea, a division bench reversed that decision, directing the employer to appoint the less-meritorious unreserved candidate.
The WBSETCL had then appealed to the Supreme Court.
