Supreme Court orders medical re-test of CSE-2014 candidate to do 'complete justice'

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed the Central Standing Medical Board to undertake a medical re-test of a candidate who passed Prelims, Mains and Interview of Civil Services Examination (CSE)-2014 but was declared 'temporarily unfit' in medical assessment.

The petitioner was declared 'temporarily unfit', due to his Body Mass Index (BMI) being 31.75, which is higher than the prescribed standard of 30 BMI. He applied for a re-medical test but did not appear.

Thereafter, in January 2016, a consolidated reserve list of candidates was published for filling up the remaining posts. He was shown to have secured 93rd rank on that list but was not allotted service.

Giving relief, a bench presided over by Justice P.S. Narasimha ordered, "in the event the petitioner qualifies in the medical re-examination, he shall neither claim appointment in the 2014 Batch, nor will he be entitled to seniority in the Batch in which he could be appointed. We also clarify that, upon clearing the re-medical, if he is to be given an appointment, his services shall commence from the date of the appointment. This is an exceptional case in which we have exercised our jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution of India to do complete justice and as such the present decision shall not be treated as a precedent in any case".

The Bench, also comprising Justice Pankaj Mithal, asked the authorities to call the petitioner for a re-medical test within a period of four weeks.

Earlier, the Central Administrative Tribunal, Patna, rejected the petitioner's plea seeking directions to be treated at par with the other candidates, observing that he did not qualify for the medical test.

In a similar case, the apex court in June 2022 directed re-medical test and after that candidate was found fit for all services, it ordered consideration of his appointment, with all consequential benefits excepting salary for the period he did not work.