Aided school managements must not mislead public on differently‑abled reservation: Kerala minister

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 30 (PTI) Kerala General Education Minister V Sivankutty on Tuesday said the management of aided schools should not mislead the public regarding the appointment of differently‑abled candidates to teaching and non‑teaching posts.

Sivankutty’s remarks come in the wake of criticism from various Christian-aided school managements regarding the appointment of differently‑abled persons in their institutions.

The Changanassery and Kothamangalam dioceses, the CSI Church, and the Catholic Congress criticised the minister’s statement in the state assembly a day ago, when he said that a recent Supreme Court verdict regarding appointments in Nair Service Society (NSS) schools did not apply to similarly placed Christian-aided institutions.

The apex court had allowed the NSS to make appointments to their vacant posts in the general category, even if vacancies reserved for differently‑abled candidates remained unfilled.

Sivankutty had said in the House that the verdict was not applicable to aided schools run by Christian managements, which would have to move the apex court for similar relief.

Christian managements have termed the minister’s remarks as "untrue and baseless". They claimed that they were not opposed to the appointment of differently‑abled persons to reserved posts, but said the government "was not effectively carrying out such appointments." They also asserted that the apex court had held that its verdict was applicable to other similarly placed managements.

They further said that all Catholic managements had earmarked vacancies for differently‑abled persons, submitted these lists, and made appointments as per the Employment Exchange’s recommendations.

In response to the criticism, the minister’s office issued a statement saying that some managements are spreading "false information about reservations for differently‑abled persons" in aided schools to mislead the public.

He said strict action would be taken against institutions that do not report vacancies.

"The minister has made it clear that he will not back down from protecting the rights of differently‑abled persons and will take strong action against managements that deliberately do not report vacancies," the statement said.

Sivankutty claimed that only a handful of managements were reporting vacancies and that others should explain why vacant posts were not being filled.

He reiterated that, according to legal advice from the Advocate General and the Law Secretary, the top court verdict was applicable only to NSS schools.

Sivankutty added that the General Education Department will examine how many vacancies remain unreported by various managements and identify those "deliberately withholding such information", and further action will be taken accordingly. PTI HMP SSK HMP SSK ROH