The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday declared the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020 as unconstitutional and violative of part-III of the Constitution.
The Bench of Justice G.S. Sandhawalia and Justice Harpreet Kaur Jeewan passed the orders on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the 2020 Act, which granted 75 percent domicile reservation for locals in Haryana in private sector jobs having a monthly salary of less than Rs 30,000.
While setting aside the Act, the High Court decided the Writ Petitions on four issues. The first was whether the petitions were maintainable.
Second issue was whether the State has legislative competence to pass the Impugned Act in light of Article 35 read with Entry 81 of List 1 of the Seventh Schedule.
It further decided on whether the State could implement reservation policy in the private sphere.
The High Court also decided on whether the Act amounted to a reasonable restriction.
The Bench ruled all the four issues in favour of the petitioners.