Rajasthan High Court - Jodhpur
Jay Ram Meena vs State & Ors on 4 May, 2016
<p align="center"><b><font face="verdana" size="2">Case No. CW - 10962 of 2015</font></b></p><br />
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN
AT JODHPUR
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No.10962/2015
Jay Ram Meena Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors.
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No.10963/2015
Kalu Ram Meena Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors.
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No.10967/2015
Suresh Kumar Meena Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors.
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No.11309/2015
Kailash Chandra Meena Vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors.
Date of Order : : 04-05-2016
HONBLE MS. JUSTICE NIRMALJIT KAUR
Mr. Arjun Purohit, for the petitioners.
Mr. Anil Bissa, AGC for the respondents.
* * * *
All the above writ petitions shall stand decided by this common order as the issue involved is identical. For the convenience, the facts are being taken up from SBCWP No.10962/2015.
The petitioners herein are seeking appointment on the post of police constable after holding re-medical examination as ordered by respondent No.3 Superintendent of Police, Hanumangarh.
The respondent issued an advertisement for appointment on the post of Constables on 14.7.2013. The petitioners appeared in the examination which was held on 1.6.2014. The petitioners cleared the written examination. He also cleared the Physical Standard Test vide result of PST dated 28.3.2015 and were finally selected for the post of Constable after qualifying all the steps of selection process like written test, PST, verification of documents etc. The select list was issued by the respondents. The respondents also issued the cut off marks for each category for all the districts. The petitioner belongs to ST category and cut off marks for the male ST category was declared as 61.500. The petitioners were subjected to medical test and during the medical examination, the petitioners were verbally informed that they were found unfit in the ophthalmic test.
The grievance of the petitioner is two fold: (a) they are not being re-examined in spite of a direction of the appropriate authority i.e. Superintendent of Police, Hanumangarh; and (b) it is not within the domain of the Principal Medical Officer to refuse re-examination.
Reply has been filed. In the reply, para No.14 of the Standing Order No.04/2013 dated 29.06.2013 issued by the DGP, Rajasthan, Jaipur has been reproduced to contend that there is no provision for subjecting the petitioners for re-medical examination again and again. Their request was already accepted once. 12 candidates including the petitioners were medically re-examined by the Medical Jurist, PBM Medical College & Associated Group of Hospitals, Bikaner who sent his report to the Superintendent, P.B.M. Hospital, Bikaner and the Superintendent of Police, Hanumangarh under his letter dated 25.04.2015 which was accompanied with report of the Medical Jurist declaring all the candidates including the petitioners as unfit from ophthalmic point of view.
Whereas, it is evident from the reply itself that these petitioners had again submitted an application for re-examination from a Board on the ground that they had got their eyes treated and now their eyes are 6/6. In pursuance to their request, the SP, Hanumangarh sent a communication to the Chief Medical & Health Officer, Hanumangarh on 19.6.2015 with a direction that they be re-examined after constituting a Medical Board for the same. Upon receipt of the said letter, the CM & HO, Hanumangarh wrote a letter to the Principal Medical Officer, District Hospital, Hanumangarh for re-medical examination of the candidates. However, the Principal Medical Officer, Hanumangarh on his own wrote letter to the SHO, Police Station, Hanumangarh that these people had already been examined earlier by the Medical Board of this Hospital and they were declared unfit, therefore they cannot be re-examined and refused to examine them. The petitioners were accordingly forced to approach this Court for the necessary relief.
It is obvious from the above that the prayer of the petitioners has been rejected on the ground of Standing Order No.04/2013 as also on the ground that they have already been examined twice. In order to adjudicate the dispute, it would be important to refer the Standing Order which is pertaining to medical examination reads as under:-
Immediately after the declaration of the merit list, requisite number of candidates in accordance with the number of vacancies, whose names appear in the merit list shall be required to undergo to a Medical Test by a Government Medical Officer. The appointing authority will ask the medical officer to submit the medical report of the candidates in the enclosed performa (annexure-D). Candidates with knock-knee, varicose veins, squint, stammering and flatfoot or any other deformity, disease or permanent/serious nature or vision less than 6/6 in both eyes without glasses or medical condition which makes the candidature unsuitable for appointment in police force shall be ineligible for appointment. The Appointing Authority shall move the Chief Medical & Health Officer/Principal Medical Officer concerned to detail one or more medical officers, as required, for this purpose.
Candidates who are found temporarily unfit and whose defect can be rectified within 6 months as per the opinion of the Medical Officer shall be eligible for appointment after the said period provided they are found fit by medical board. Candidates who fail to conform to the prescribed standards of medical fitness even on re-examination within stipulated time shall be declared medically unfit for appointment and their candidature shall stand cancelled.
It is evident from the above that in case, a defect can be rectified within six months as per the opinion of the Medical Officer, the concerned candidate is eligible for appointment after the said period provided they are found fit by the Medical Board. The petitioners were examined for the first time on 7.4.2015. They were examined for the second time on 25.4.2015. Thereafter, they moved an application for re-examination after getting their eyes treated. The SP, Hanumangarh vide his letter dated 19.06.2015 requested that a Medical Board be constituted for medical re-examination of the petitioners. Therefore, it is evident that re-examination was ordered within six months as stipulated in the Standing Order. A perusal of the Standing Order shows that there is no bar that the re-examination cannot be more than two times. There is no such restriction. Besides, in the present case, the Superintendent of Police had recommended for the re-examination after taking into consideration the Standing Order. It was not within the domain of Principal Medical Officer, Hanumangarh to raise an objection that they had already stood examined by the Medical Board, PBM Hospital, Bikaner and they had already been declared unfit specially when the re-examination was ordered on the ground that the petitioners had got their eyes treated accordingly. The present re-examination was being ordered after the said treatment and same was within six months.
In view of the above, this Court is of the view that it was incumbent upon the authorities to constitute a Medical Board for medical re-examination of the petitioners for the purpose of ophthalmic point of view.
Accordingly, the present writ petitions are allowed with a direction that the respondents shall immediately ensure that Medical Board is consituted for the purpose within two weeks from the receipt of this order and thereafter consider them for appointment in case they are found medically fit by the Board and are otherwise found eligible.
(NIRMALJIT KAUR), J.
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