Consider inclusion of para athletes in sports quota, HC to Telangana government

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Thursday directed the state government to consider inclusion of para sportspersons in the two percent sports quota for state government jobs and admission in educational institutions.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice C.V. Bhaskar Reddy directed the government to inform the court by February 6.

The bench was dealing with a petition filed by some para-athletes who were denied sports quota appointments for the posts of panchayat secretary as the government has excluded para-sportspersons.

The government’s contention was that such athletes come under differently-abled category for which there is a separate quota of three percent.

Baglekar Akash Kumar, counsel for the petitioners, told the court that when the government was providing vertical and horizontal systems in reservations where like a women candidate is eligible for both caste reservation (vertical) as well as the women quota (horizontal), why should para athletes be denied the facility.

Chief Justice Bhuyan opined that the demand of the petitioners was legitimate and asked the government to consider it positively.