121 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH DECIDED ON: 30.10.2025 SONU .....PETITIONER(S)

VERSUS UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS .....RESPONDENT(S)

CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANDEEP MOUDGIL Present: Mr. Sharad Aggarwal, Advocate for the petitioners Ms. Anita Balyan, Advocate for respondents.

SANDEEP MOUDGIL, J

1. Prayer The present writ petition has been filed under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India, seeking quashing of the impugned order dated 02.09.2024 (Annexure P-14) passed by Respondent No. 4, by which the petitioner was dismissed from service, and the impugned order dated 03.04.2025 (Annexure P- 16) passed by the Director General, Border Security Force (Respondent No. 2), whereby the petition filed by the petitioner under Rule 28-A of the BSF Rules, 1969 was dismissed. Further seeks a direction to the respondents to reinstate him into service with all consequential benefits, including arrears of salary with interest.

2. Facts:-

The petitioner was appointed as Sub-Inspector (GD) in the Border Security Force on 19.03.2018 and, upon completion of basic training on

10.03.2019, was posted to 94 Battalion BSF. During his service at the India- Bangladesh border, the petitioner contracted Covid-19 in 2021, following which he underwent treatment at Composite Hospital BSF, Kadamtala, and North Bengal Medical College, where he was diagnosed with Acute Bronchial Asthma. He was thereafter placed in a temporary low medical category. As the battalion subsequently moved to Chhattisgarh, the petitioner availed various spells of earned leave, half-pay leave and extraordinary leave between August 2022 and May 2023, which he states were due to recurring respiratory difficulties. The petitioner rejoined duty on 12.05.2023, and an Annual Medical Board convened on 26.07.2023 upgraded him to Shape-1.

In January 2024, while attending a Platoon Weapon Course at STC BSF, Jodhpur, the petitioner experienced breathing difficulty and was admitted to Composite Hospital, Jodhpur, from where he was discharged on 05.02.2024 with an observation recommending that he be placed in low medical category. The petitioner did not report back to his unit thereafter and communicated medical documents through email along with requests for extension of leave. During this period, the unit issued several notices directing him to report for duty. As the petitioner did not comply, the competent authority passed an order dated 02.09.2024 dismissing him from service on account of unauthorized absence. The petitioner thereafter filed a statutory petition under Rule 28-A of the BSF Rules, 1969 (in short as BSF Rules), which came to be rejected by the Director General, BSF on 03.04.2025.

Aggrieved by these orders, the petitioner has approached this Court by way of the present writ petition.

3. Contentions On behalf of the petitioner Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that the petitioner had been suffering from Acute Bronchial Asthma ever since he contracted Covid-19 in 2021 and had remained under continuous medical treatment at BSF hospitals and other referral medical institutions. It is submitted that the petitioner had regularly informed the unit about his medical condition and had forwarded all relevant prescriptions, diagnostic reports and treatment records from time to time through the official email of the battalion.

Counsel further submits that the petitioner’s absence was not willful but was compelled by recurrent asthma attacks and breathing difficulties, which rendered him unable to travel back to the unit, particularly after the battalion had moved to a Naxal-affected area in Chhattisgarh.

It is urged that despite his serious and persistent respiratory ailment, the petitioner was inexplicably upgraded to Shape-1 by the Medical Board convened in July 2023, whereas within a few months he again required emergency hospitalization at Composite Hospital, Jodhpur, where the medical authorities recommended that he be placed back into low medical categor