High Court of Delhi

Km. Priyanka vs. Union of india & Ors.

MANU/DE/2380/2020

21.12.2020

Civil

Standard of physical fitness for the Armed Forces is more stringent and so opinion of doctors of Armed Forces shall prevail

In present case, the Petitioner is an aspirant to the post of Constable (G.D.) in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and had applied for the said post pursuant to the advertisement dated 21st July, 2018, published in Employment News/Rozgar Samachar.

The Petitioner appeared for the written test on 14th February, and qualified the written test. Subsequently, she appeared for the Physical Standard Test/Physical Efficiency Test (PST/PET) on 26th August, 2019 and was also successful in these tests. On 20th January, 2020, she was called for a medical examination. Unfortunately, she was declared medically unfit. She was issued a medical unfitness certificate of the same date, i.e. 20th January, 2020. She was granted a chance to file an appeal against this finding.

The standard of physical fitness for the Armed Forces and the Police Forces is more stringent than for civilian employment. In Priti Yadav Vs. Union of India; Jonu Tiwari Vs. Union of India; Nishant Kumar Vs. Union of India and Sharvan Kumar Rai Vs. Union of India,it is held that, once no mala fides are attributed and the doctors of the Forces who are well aware of the demands of duties of the Forces in the terrain in which the recruited personnel are required to work, have formed an opinion that a candidate is not medically fit for recruitment, opinion of private or other government doctors to the contrary cannot be accepted as the recruited personnel are required to work for the Forces and not for the private doctors or the government hospitals and which medical professionals are unaware of the demands of the duties in the Forces. In fact, the case of Priti Yadav also related to ‘cubital valgus’. It is also to be noted that the specialists that the petitioner had consulted had also found that the petitioner suffered from ‘cubital valgus’ and therefore, the findings by the Medical Boards were not wrong.

What may seem as a minor difference in the assessment of the Civil doctors in comparison to the assessment of the Medical Boards, may blow up into a serious health condition during the course of service with the CAPFs. It is not in the interest of either the Police Forces or candidates that, their medical problems are brushed aside only on the plea that it was a question of employment. The general health of candidates would be permanently impacted due to the stress, both physical and mental, on account of these medical shortcomings. On the other hand, the government would be saddled with a Police Force where such personnel would seek soft postings because of their health conditions and low medical category. This would lead to dissatisfaction amongst the personnel in the Forces as some people, who ought not to have been taken into the Forces, would always benefit, whereas the others would be mostly faced with hard postings and duties.

The Petitioner has availed of all opportunities to get a second opinion during the Appeal/Review Medical Board and there is no purpose left in getting a further medical examination conducted. The petition is accordingly dismissed.

Tags : Medical fitness standard Armed forces

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