Supreme Court directs fresh medical test for UPSC qualified candidate declared temporarily unfit in 2015

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has come to rescue of a 35-year-old man by directing the Union government to conduct a fresh medical test for him, 10 years after he passed the prelims, mains and the interview in the Civil Services Exams.

Petitioner Rakshit Shivam Prakash did not appear for a re-medical test on July 14, 2015 after failing in the first one due to slight increase in body mass index, since the UPSC published the final list on July 4, 2015 without his name.

He concluded that the selection process was complete upon publication of this final result and having lost hope, did not appear for the re-medical test.

"The most amazing things in life happen right at the moment you are about to give up hope," a bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Pankaj Mithal noted, as two years after on January 19, 2016, a consolidated reserve list of 126 candidates was published for filling up the remaining posts.

The petitioner was shown to have secured rank 93rd in this list. At the same time, candidates ranked below the petitioner on that list, up till 97th rank, were allocated service.

"With this publication, his hope became a claim of right," the court said.

Dealing with his writ petition, the bench directed his re-medical test but since almost a decade has passed, it said that in the event the petitioner qualifies in the medical re-examination, he should neither claim appointment in the 2014 Batch, nor will he be entitled to seniority.

Before approaching the Supreme Court, the petitioner had approached the Central Administrative Tribunal as well as the Patna High Court.

The tribunal had dismissed his plea citing case of another K Rajashekhara Reddy, who was similarly placed and could not qualify in the medical examination. But when the Telangana High Court allowed Reddy's plea, the petitioner withdrew his pending plea before the Patna High Court to make a representation before the authorities in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had approved the HC's decision in Reddy's case.

In response to the representation by the petitioner, the DoPT contended that the Supreme Court's order in Reddy's case had upheld the stand of the government regarding prescription of a time limit for medical reexamination of ‘temporarily unfit’ candidates.

Left with no choice, the petitioner filed the writ petition in the Supreme Court, which partly allowed it and directed the respondents to call the petitioner for a re-medical test within a period of four week.

"Reddy was granted relief by this court, he was 38 years old and had exhausted all his attempts for Civil Services Exams. The petitioner is 35 years old, and he too has exhausted all his attempts," the bench said.

The court, however, clarified this is an exceptional case in which it has exercised jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution to do complete justice and as such, the present decision should not be treated as a precedent in any case.