Gita Mittal, J.

1. The instant case arises in unique facts relating to medical fitness of a female candidate seeking recruitment to Sashastra Seema Bal who had been diagnosed as suffering from a hormonal anomaly which is described as a `Disorder of Sexual Differentiation' and had undergone the necessary surgery and thereafter placed on hormonal replacement therapy who has been found physically fit despite her having been found unfit in all evaluation tests. The medical unfitness was certified by the doctors of the Sashastra Seemfa Bal who did not have expertise in the concerned field and without any expert opinion or scientific material.

2. The petitioner Faizan Siddiqui assails the rejection of her candidature for the post of Constable (General Duty) Female in the Sashastra Seema Bal (`SSB' hereafter) on grounds of medical unfitness by a medical examination conducted on 3rd February, 2008 and the review medical board conducted on 25th April, 2008.

3. The SSB had published an advertisement in the Employment News dated 24-30th November, 2007, also uploaded on the SSB website, inviting applications for appointment to 128 vacancies for the post of Constable (GD) Female to be filled from the UP State. Overall 763 vacancies were notified for various states and Union Territories. The recruitment notice informed the candidates that their place of duty would be anywhere within as well as outside the territory of India.

4. The selection procedure required the eligible candidates to appear in a recruitment test; to undergo screening for height and weight measurements and pass a Physical Efficiency Test (PET). A candidate was thereafter required to undergo a written examination of 50 marks and an interview of 15 marks to be eligible for the medical examination for assessment of medical fitness.

5. The petitioner was found eligible and was issued an admit card for the written examination conducted by the respondents on 28th January, 2008. She cleared the measurement stipulations. The respondents state that between the 28th January, 2008 to 8th February, 2008, the petitioner qualified the physical standards test; physical efficiency test; as well as the written test and the interview at the SHQ, SSB, Gorakhpur.

6. It appears that at the age of 15, the petitioner had a complaint of swelling in her labia (private parts). She had got herself examined in the year 2002 about five years before the recruitment process at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, a premier tertiary care referral hospital.

7. The petitioner's medical condition, treatment and the status of her fitness are best stated by her treating physician, Dr. V. Bhatia, a professor in the Department of Endocrinology, in the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Science at Lucknow who has summarised the petitioner's medical history and treatment in the certificate dated 12th May, 2008 as follows:-

"Faizan Siddiqui was seen by me in 2002, at age 15 years, for complaint of swellings in her labia (private parts). On examination, she had external gonads which appeared like testes, but no development of any male like sexual characteristics of her external genitalia. She had breast development and a feminine voice. The clinical suspicion of the disease Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome was confirmed by the following tests: Karyotype 46 X Y, serum testosterone 1380 ng/dl, LH 15 IU/L. This is a condition where by birth, the action of male harmone on the body does not occur, so a baby who is born male has physical characteristics of a female, and throughout life develops like a girl, physically, mentally and psychologically.

After appropriate counseling with patient and her parents, a surgical opinion was sought and Dr. Rakesh Kapoor, professor of urology at this institution, performed a removal of testes followed by vaginoplasty, in 2002. Since then, she has been on female hormones by tablet.

She is advised to take female hormone lifelong. She is not expected