The uniform application of medical standards for employment and the requirement for selected candidates to satisfy the prescribed medical criteria.

G.S. SISTANI, J.

1. Present appeal is directed against the order dated 10.11.2016 passed by a learned Single Judge of this Court in W.P.(C) No.7804/2015 whereby the petition filed by the petitioner was rejected.

2. The necessary facts, to be noticed for disposal of the present appeal, are that an advertisement was published by respondent no.2 inviting applications from the eligible candidates for the post of Quality Control Officer (Grade-A), Boiler Operations Engineers, Medical Officer, Assistant Officer, Human Resource Officer, etc. The appellant, who claims to be Ph.D from IIT, Roorkee, in Environmental Analytical Chemistry, and is stated to have worked as Senior Research Fellow in the Chemistry Department of IIT Roorkee, had applied for the post of Quality Control Officer in the General Category with the Registration no.105526. The appellant was called to appear in the written test, wherein he was declared successful. Thereafter he was called for Group Discussion/Group Task and interview by respondent no.2 scheduled for 28.8.2014, which were cleared by him. The appellant was finally selected for the post of Quality Control Officer and was issued an offer of appointment dated 17.12.2014 in Grade A in the pay scale of Rs.24,900-50,500/-. Vide email dated 5.1.2015 sent by respondent no.2, the appellant was informed that the offer of appointment issued had been returned undelivered and the appellant was asked to remain in touch with the office of respondent no.2 so that offer of appointment could be handed over to him. Thereafter the offer of appointment was delivered to the appellant, which was duly accepted by him. The appellant submitted a signed copy of the offer of appointment along with requisite documents mentioned therein to respondent no.2. Subsequently, pursuant to a medical examination conducted by the Medical Board of respondent no.2, the appellant was declared FIT in the Pre-Employment Medical Examination and he was issued a certificate dated 6.1.2015. The distant vision of the right eye of the appellant, without glasses, was stated to be 6/6 and 5/60 for the left eye, and with glasses it was stated to be 6/36 for the left eye. The appellant was declared FIT for the abovementioned post. On 12.1.2015, when the appellant went to join the office, the CMO of respondent no.2 did not allow him to join the duties on the ground that he is medically unfit as his left eye vision is 6/36.

3. Learned counsel for the appellant submits that respondent no.2 vide Certificate dated 6.1.2015 had declared the appellant FIT for the said post and they cannot declare him unfit without conducting further medical check-up. Counsel further submits that no further medical report was provided to the appellant and the CMO simply wrote Clause 6.19(i) medically unfit left eye 6/36 and ignored the FIT Certificate already issued by the Medical Board.

4. Counsel for the appellant further submits that subsequently the appellant had consulted some of the Government Doctors and Eye specialists, who opined that the low vision in the left eye is amblyopia and advised him to wear glasses, besides exercise and certain medicines. Counsel further submits that the appellant followed the advice of the Doctor for about a week due to which his vision improved significantly to 6/18P and sometimes 6/18. In support of this contention, counsel has drawn the attention of the Court to the reports of medical examination issued by District Hospital, Ghaziabad; Eque-Q-Vision Pvt. Ltd., Roorkee; AIIMS, New Delhi; and Kailash Hospital and Heard Institute, Noida.

5. Learned counsel for the appellant contends that the appellant sent an email dated 21.3.2015 to respondent no.2 pointing out that as per Clause 2.2 of their Guidelines, Pre-medical examination shall be a part of selection procedure of a candidate for a particular post in respect of Engineers/officers recruited through All India Open Advertisement. The appellant also pointed out that he is not a one-eyed p