Point of law: Recruitment - Declaration as unfit - petitioner unfit for the reason of “Multiple Keloids” - Rightly declared as unfit.

JUDGMENT :

[VIA VIDEO CONFERENCING]

RAJIV SAHAI ENDLAW, J.

(A) These petitions, though by different petitioners but filed through the same advocate, have some similarity in facts and are being listed together and have today also been heard together and are disposed of by this common judgment. However for the sake of clarity of facts, first the narrative of W.P.(C) 4557/2021 is given herein below and thereafter under W.P.(C) 4662/2021, only the facts which are different therein are highlighted.

W.P.(C) 4557/2021

1. The petitioner, being a candidate for recruitment as an Airman in the respondents Indian Air Force, during the recruitment drive of the year 2019, has filed this petition impugning the decision of the Appeal Medical Board finding the petitioner unfit for serving in the respondents Indian Air Force.

2. This petition, impugning the finding dated 22nd August, 2019, of the Appeal Medical Board, is dated 8th April, 2021 and came up first before this Court on 15th April, 2021, i.e. after nearly twenty months of the date when the Appeal Medical Board found the petitioner unfit. We have thus, at the outset enquired from the counsel for the petitioner, why the petition, claiming the relief of recruitment, should not be dismissed as barred by delay laches and acquiescence.

3. The counsel for the petitioner states that the petitioner, after having been found medically unfit by the Appeal Medical Board on 22nd August, 2019, in or about March, 2020 filed a writ petition in this Court but which did not get listed and thus this petition was again filed and got listed.

4. The aforesaid is no explanation for the long delay especially considering that the matter relates to recruitment of the year 2019 and which recruitment, by now would have been long over. The petitioner, when had been declared medically unfit on 22nd August, 2019, if really desirous of joining the respondents Indian Air Force and if dissatisfied with the finding of the Appeal Medical Board, should have taken steps immediately. The first petition also, is stated to have been filed after seven months therefrom, in March, 2020, and which was also not pursued. Though on account of the prevalent pandemic, the functioning of this Court was restricted with effect from mid-March 2020, but urgent matters were being taken up. The petitioner, if felt any urgency, could have got the petition listed and the fact that the petitioner waited for one year, speaks volumes of the laxity on the part of the petitioner.

5. The counsel for the petitioner then states that the petitioner is still of eligible age.

6. We have enquired from the counsel for the petitioner, that if the petitioner as per the age is still eligible, whether the petitioner participated in the recruitment drive of the years 2020 and 2021.

7. The counsel for the petitioner states that the petitioner participated in the said drives, but could not qualify and did not reach the stage of Medical Examination even.

8. That explains the delay on the part of the petitioner. The petitioner, though decided to take a chance of recruitment in the following years but after being unsuccessful therein, has decided to challenge the finding of the Appeal Medical Board in the recruitment drive of the year 2019.

9. Be that as it may, we have examined the merits also. The Appeal Medical Board found the petitioner medically unfit on account of “Portwine Stain (Vascular Nevus)”.

10. The counsel for the respondents Indian Air Force, pursuant to the directions in the earlier order, has produced before us an extract of the Manual of Medical Examination and Medical Boards, published under the authority of the Chief of Air Staff, as on 4th September, 2010 and as per Clause 3.8.7 of which, “Naevus depigmentosus and Beckers naevus may be considered fit. Intradermal naevus, vascular naevi may be considered unfit”.

11. The Appeal Medical Board having found the petitioner to be suffering from “Vascular Nevus”, the petitioner, as per the medical standards prescribe