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Context: Supreme Court overruled the decision of Haryana High court that stayed the Implementation of reservation in Private sector.

Details:

• The Supreme Court overturned the decision of Haryana High court that blocked the implementation of New reservation policy of Haryana Government to provide 75% reservation to Locals in Private Sector jobs.
• The Supreme Court also ordered the Haryana government not to initiate any harsh action against violation of the State Reservation policy made under Employment of Local Candidates Act.

Argument in Favor of Reservation in Private sector:

• Government decisions resulting either closing down or Privatization of many Public sector companies, Therefore opportunities of getting jobs in the public sector is declining.
• Reservation policy is based on the concept of affirmative action, it is necessary for the upliftment of the socio-economic backward people, and reservation in Private sector is a tool to provide employment opportunities to these groups.
• It is the duty of the Private sector to share the responsibility of government as the private sector also uses public infrastructure for their operational activities.

Argument against Reservation in Private sector:

• Provision for Reservation in the private sector is unconstitutional as it violates Right to Equality, Right to practise any profession or to carry on any occupation, Right to Livelihood under Article 14, 15 and 21 respectively of the Indian Constitution.
• Private sector reservation policy negatively impacts employment, growth, livelihood, and socio-economic development of the State.
• It hurts the Business environment and negatively impacts the ease of doing business policy of the Government.
• Governments running from their responsibility of job creation, and during election sessions they shift their responsibility to the private sector to satisfy their voters.
• Private Sector already contributes enough for Socio-economic development of the society by paying taxes, and they also spend a portion of their profit on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Therefore, Imposing Reservation policy to share jobs on the basis of domicile would be unfair.
• Reservation policy in the favor of the local population could impact our core value of “equality and brotherhood” as it could create tension between locals and migrants, and also a threat to Peace and security of the Society.

Way forward:

• Unemployment is a serious challenge for our policy makers, which influences them to take drastic steps like Reserving jobs in the Private sector. But In order to overcome this challenge, we need to find the root of the problem, and the core issue is inadequate job growth or jobless growth in our economy.
• Therefore the need of the hour is to look ahead to short term solutions like reservation and take appropriate steps towards a long term goal of sustainable job growth by investing on Health, education, Skill development of the people and promoting ease of doing business to attract investment in the economy

Further reading - https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/supreme-court-sets-aside-punjab-haryana-hc-order-on-quota-in-private-sector-jobs-in-haryana/article65058364.ece#:~:text=%E2%80%9CReservation%20in%20private%20sector%20has,does%20not%20back%20this%20law.

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