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2. It is the case of the petitioner that pursuant to the Notification for the conduct of the Air Force Common Admission Test-02/2020 (hereinafter referred to as the „AFCAT Notification‟), the petitioner applied for the post of Group A, Gazetted Officers of Flying and Ground Duty (Technical/Non-technical branches) of the IAF. Upon clearing both the written test and the Engineering Knowledge Test (in short, „EKT‟), the petitioner was invited to appear for the interview at 3 AFSB, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The petitioner, having cleared the interview stage as well, was recommended to join the following courses of the IAF:

9. We have considered the submissions made by the learned counsel for the petitioner and find no merit in the same.

10. The AFCAT Notification states that the guidelines with regard to the physical and medical standards for candidates are provided in Appendix-A to the AFCAT Notification. Appendix-A to the AFCAT Notification makes note of the requirements that a candidate ought to fulfill with regard to the ophthalmic system. The relevant clause is reproduced hereinbelow:

(emphasis supplied)

11. The relevant portion of Appendix-C to the AFCAT Notification, which details the visual standards for candidates in the flying as well as the ground duty branch of the IAF, is reproduced hereinbelow:

"VISUAL STANDARDS FOR AIR FORCE COMMON ADMISSION ONLINE TEST (AFCAT- 02/2020) FOR FLYING BRANCH AND GROUND DUTIES (TECHNICAL AND NON-TECHNICAL)/ NCC SPECIAL ENTRY/METEOROLOGY ENTRY FOR COURSES COMMENCING IN JULY 2021 CANDIDATES ON ENTRY Sl. Branch Maximum Limits of Refractive Visual Acuity Colour No. Error Errors Vision

12. A perusal of the abovementioned standards would show that colour vision CP-IV is not acceptable in either the flying branch or ground duties. The learned counsel for the petitioner has also not been able to point out any clause in the AFCAT Notification which states that the Martin Lantern Test is to be conducted only for the flying branches of the IAF and not to ground duty branches. In absence of any such prohibition, the subjection of the petitioner to the Martin Lantern Test cannot be faulted. We must note that on the other hand, Clause 2 of the Medical Standards given as Appendix A to the AFCAT Notification prescribes that "the basic requirements of medical fitness are essentially the same for all branches, except for aircrew in whom the parameters for visual acuity, anthropometry and certain other physical standards are more stringent". It does not state that different medical tests are also to be applied for determining the medical fitness of the candidates.