The High Court of Delhi held that the opinion of private doctors can’t be accepted for declaring the fitness of police force aspirants. The petitioner had filed a writ petition before the court as she was declared unfit by the military doctors. The petitioner, also an aspirant of constable post in the CAPF had applied for the same. After clearing all the tests, she was called for a medical examination and was declared unfit for the post as she was “Carrying Angle > 20° Both Side”. After getting her medical unfitness certificate, she was given a chance to file an appeal against the decision
regarding her medical fitness. With that, she also had to get a medical fitness certificate from a government hospital’s medical practitioner.
The petitioner got herself examined at the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, Government of Karnataka. Where she was declared medically fit and it was also observed that “there is a bit Cubitus Valgus carrying angle < 20° (18°)”. After this, the petitioner appeared again before the Review Medical Board and claimed that she was wrongfully declared unfit as there
was no medical practitioner before the board. For further assurance, she appeared before Aster CMI Hospital and Columbia Asia Hospital where she was declared fit. The petitioner further argued that as per the Uniform Guidelines for Medical Examination Test of Combined Recruitment of CT/GD in CAPFs/Ars, it has been established that at least one medical specialist had to be included in the board.
The court to arrive at the judgment relied on the cases of Priti Yadav Vs. Union of India, Tiwari Vs. Union of India, Nishant Kumar Vs. Union of India, and Sharvan Kumar Rai Vs. Union of India. It has thus been held before that when the doctors and medical practitioners of force, who know the duties and their demands of the officers and personnel who are required to work in some specific terrain and some geographical locations have an opinion for the medical fitness of the candidates, the opinion of private medical practitioners cannot be accepted. The court further declared that such a minor question of employment also carries with it a possibility to turn into a serious health blow and hence should be taken care of. Moreover, both the mental as well as mental health also gets impacted due to the job profile and its conditions. Also, soft postings might create dissatisfaction among personnel as some of them might prefer soft postings while some of them might be faced with harsher conditions and postings.
REPORTED BY: TANUJ SHARMA