SC Orders Fresh Medical Test for Civil Services Candidate Disqualified for Obesity

Nearly a decade after succeeding in the civil services exam but being declared “temporarily unfit” for service due to obesity, the Supreme Court came to the aid of a candidate on Friday by ordering the UPSC to conduct a fresh medical examination.

Using its special powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, the top court directed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to conduct a new physical fitness test for Rakshit Shivam Prakash, who ranked 93 in the 2014 civil services exam but was disqualified due to an “unacceptable” Body Mass Index (BMI). The candidate’s BMI was 31.75, higher than the prescribed standard of 30. He was declared “temporarily unfit” and denied employment, and he missed the second medical test scheduled for July 14, 2015.

Article 142 empowers the top court to pass “any decree or order necessary for doing complete justice in any case or matter pending before it.” Exercising this power, a bench comprising Justices P.S. Narasimha and Pankaj Mithal stated, “Having considered the facts and circumstances of the case, we consider it appropriate to grant limited relief. This will be to direct the respondents (UPSC and others, including the Department of Personnel and Training) to reschedule the re-medical test that was to be conducted on July 14, 2015, which the petitioner unfortunately missed.”

The bench, however, rejected the plea for a direction to the UPSC to allocate service to the petitioner with all consequential benefits at par with other similarly placed candidates of the 2014 test. “At the outset, we reject the prayer (allocation of service) made by the petitioner for allocation of service and consequential benefits against the Civil Services Examination, 2014,” Justice Narasimha said in the judgment.

“Considering the fact that the original re-medical examination was to happen in 2015 and almost a decade has passed by, we direct that in the event the petitioner qualifies in the medical re-examination, he shall neither claim appointment in the 2014 batch nor be entitled to seniority in the batch in which he could be appointed,” the court said. It also clarified that if Prakash clears the medical test, his services shall commence from the date of 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,” it added.

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