Supreme Court Grants Relief To UPSC Aspirant Who Missed Re-Medical Test In 2014, Allows His Appointment On Clearing Test

In the case of a UPSC aspirant who qualified the exam and interview stages, but failed to clear the medial test and was accordingly declared 'temporarily unfit' for services, the Supreme Court recently invoked its plenary jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution to do complete justice and directed that he be given another opportunity for re-medical test.

If he qualifies the same and is appointed, the court directed that his services shall commence from the date of appointment.

In arriving at the decision, the bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Pankaj Mithal noted that the petitioner-candidate was scheduled for re-medical test in 2015. However, he missed it due to a presumption that he had lost his chance of selected as a final list of successful candidates came to be published by UPSC prior to his re-medical test.

The court also considered that the petitioner was 35 years of age and had exhausted all his attempts.

Factual Background

Petitioner appeared in the Civil Services Exam 2014 and qualified the Prelims, Mains and Interview stages, but not the medical exam. As such, he was declared 'temporarily unfit' as his Body Mass Index was found to be 31.75 above the prescribed BMI standard of 30.

He applied for a re-medical test and the same was scheduled for July 14, 2015. On July 4, 2015, however, UPSC published the final result and petitioner's name did not appear in the list. Assuming that the selection process was complete, he did not appear for the re-medical test on July 14.

On January 19, 2016, UPSC published a consolidated reserve list of 126 candidates for filling up the remaining posts. In this list, petitioner secured rank 93 and candidates below him (upto 97th rank) were allocated service.

As such, he approached the Central Administrative Tribunal, Patna seeking directions to be treated at par. His plea was dismissed by the Tribunal taking note of its own decision in one K. Rajashekhara Reddy's case, who also could not qualify medical test. Against the decision, the petitioner approached the High Court with a writ petition.

While this petition was pending, Reddy's petition was allowed by High Court of Telangana. In an SLP against the Telangana High Court's order in Reddy's case, the Supreme Court directed re-medical. When Reddy was found to be fit for all services, the top Court invoked Article 142 to direct his consideration for appointment.

Based on the top Court's decision, the petitioner withdrew his case from the High Court and made a representation to the respondent-authority for similar treatment. However, the respondent replied that the Supreme Court decision in Reddy's case upheld the stance regarding the prescription of a time limit for medical re-exam of 'temporarily unfit' candidates.

Aggrieved by this, the petitioner approached the Supreme Court with the instant case. He prayed for (i) a direction to respondent for allocation of service with all consequential benefits, and (ii) a direction for conduct of a re-medical exam.

Court Observations

Calling the petitioner's missing of chance to sit for re-medical in 2015 an "unfortunate situation", the Court noted:

"The case of Mr. K. Rajashekhara Reddy may not be identical but life being what it is, one commonality is in the fact that Mr. K. Rajashekhara Reddy also missed the medical re-examination and his prayer, similar to that of the Writ Petitioner, was accepted by the High Court; and this Court did not interfere with the Order while exercising jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution of India."

It further observed that like Reddy (at the time when he was granted relief by Supreme Court), the petitioner had exhausted all his attempts, being 35 years of age.

Conclusion

Considering the facts, the Court directed the respondent-authority to re-schedule within 4 weeks the re-medical test which was "unfortunately missed" by the petitioner.

However, noting that almost a decade had passed since the time the original re-medical was scheduled, the Court clarified that if the petitioner qualifies in the re-medical, he shall neither claim appointment in the 2014 Batch, nor shall 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 appointment, his services shall commence from the date of the appointment", it said.

The Court also added that its decision shall not be treated as a precedent.

"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."

Case Title: RAKSHIT SHIVAM PRAKASH VERSUS UNION OF INDIA AND ANR., WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) NO. 890/2023

Citation : 2024 LiveLaw (SC) 547

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