Service Law - Denial of claim for medical re-examination merely because the application had not been routed through proper administrative channel; can be described as thrash & arbitrary

J. S. Khehar, J.

1. The Police Department of the Chandigarh Administration, chandigarh, issued an advertisement in March, 1994, inviting applications for 80 posts of constables. Suffice it to state, that the petitioner applied for appointment against the post of constables advertised in March, 1994.

2. Having participated in the process of selection, the petitioner was found meritorious and within the zone of appointment. It is in the aforesaid circumstances, that the petitioner was deputed for medical examination. He was medically examined by an Eye specialist at the General Hospital, sector-16, Chandigarh, who arrived at the conclusion, that the eye-sight in one of the eyes of the petitioner, was inadequate, and accordingly, declared him medically unfit for appointment against the post of constable.

3. The petitioner made a representation to the Inspector General of police, UT, Chandigarh, asserting, that his medical examination had been conducted by the General Hospital, Sector 16, Chandigarh, when he was suffering from eye flu, and that was the reason why he was found medically unfit. He also produced a medical certificate issued by the Civil hospital, karnal, wherein, it was affirmed, that his vision was normal. In view of the aforesaid request made by the petitioner, the Inspector General of police, ut, Chandigarh, addressed a communication dated 21.10.1994 to the, principal Medical Officer and Director, Health Services, Chandigarh administration, Chandigarh, requiring him to re-examine the petitioner so as to ascertain, whether the defect earlier recorded in one of the eyes of the petitioner, was on account of the eye flu suffered by him. Relevant portion of the communication addressed by the Inspector General of Police to the principal Medical Officer and Director, Health Services, Chandigarh administration, Chandigarh, is being extracted hereunder:-

"sh. Azad Singh s/o Ranjit Singh was selected for the post of constable in Chandigarh Police. He was got medically examined from your office and was declared medically unfit for the post of constable due to defective vision. Now he has represented that at the time of his medical examination at general Hospital, Sector 16, Chandigarh, he was under the effect of "eye Flue". The effect of the Eye Flue was so much on the one eye. He has also produced medical fitness slip of civil Hospital, Karnal, in which his vision has been shown as a normal. In view of the above, we would, therefore, like to cwp No.1288-CAT of 2002 Page numbers know whether the weakness of eyesight would be due to the effect of eye flue or otherwise. "

4. No medical examination of the petitioner was conducted despite the aforesaid communication from the Inspector General of Police, UT, chandigarh. Two reasons emerge from the pleadings of this case for not medically re-examining the petitioner, firstly, that it had not been routed through the concerned department. Reference in this behalf may be made to the Memoranda dated 7.11.1994 and 9.3.1995, appended to the instant writ petition as Annexures P-3 and P-4, respectively. The second objection was based on the Hand Book on Medical Examination, which records as under:-

"30. If any medical certificate is produced by the candidate as piece of evidence about the possibility of an error of judgement in the decision of an examining medical authority who had examined him in the first instance, the certificate will not be taken into consideration unless it contains a note by the medical practitioner who gave the certificate, to the effect that it has been given in full knowledge of the fact that the candidate has already been rejected as unfit for service by a medical Board, a Civil Surgeon or other Medical Officer. (Ministry of Health O. M. F.7 (1)-6- (53)-MII, dated the 27th March, 1953 ).30 (a) If a candidate is declared medically unfit on account of visual acuity, any appeal preferred by him/her should be dealt with by a special Medical Board the composi