New Delhi, May 17 (IANS): The Court of Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) has in a recent order recommended the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), New Delhi, to fill up vacancies reserved for PWDs, which were kept pending for more than 14 years now.

The order has been passed in a complaint filed by one Vijay Garg and represented by Advocate Abhishek Prasad.

As per the complainant, he had preferred this complaint due to the deliberate inaction and lackadaisical approach of SPA in making appointments against the vacancies, despite continuously advertising for the same.

The court taking note of the failure of the SPA to fill the vacancies held that "to keep posts vacant is a retrograde step" and that the SPA "must make all efforts to fill the advertised vacancies".

The court further recommended that the backlog will be filled by a special recruitment drive providing reasonable accommodations and relaxing the criteria.

SPA is a university established under the School of Planning and Architecture Act, 2014, and is considered to be an "institution of national importance".

SPA is governed by a General Council which is chaired by the State Education Minister, who was also made a party to the complaint.