HC sets aside rejection of two CAPF aspirants for being a few mm shorter

The two aspirants, Sushant Bhausaheb Sarode from Nashik and Sahil Sanjay Patil from Kolhapur, earlier this year, cleared the computer-based test (CBT) and the physical efficiency test (PET) for recruitment to the post of constable and rifleman in the CAPFs and Assam Rifles. In August this year, when Sarode and Patil appeared for physical standards test (PST) at the recruitment centre in Talegaon, Pune, they were rejected after their heights were measured as 164.7 cm and 164.6 cm respectively, against the prescribed minimum of 165 cm

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday set aside the disqualification of two 21-year-old applicants from recruitment to the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) for being a few millimeters shorter than the required height of 165 mm.

Bombay High Court (HT Photo)

The two aspirants, Sushant Bhausaheb Sarode from Nashik and Sahil Sanjay Patil from Kolhapur, earlier this year, cleared the computer-based test (CBT) and the physical efficiency test (PET) for recruitment to the post of constable and rifleman in the CAPFs and Assam Rifles. In August this year, when Sarode and Patil appeared for physical standards test (PST) at the recruitment centre in Talegaon, Pune, they were rejected after their heights were measured as 164.7 cm and 164.6 cm respectively, against the prescribed minimum of 165 cm.

Subsequently, they filed their petitions with the Bombay High Court, claiming that the ‘Revised Uniform Guidelines’ of May 2015, issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, specifically allow rounding off height measurements. They highlighted clause 2(d) of the guidelines, which states that fractions less than 0.5 cm are to be ignored, while 0.5 cm and above are to be rounded up to the next centimetre. On this basis, the height of the petitioners should have been considered as 165 cm, their lawyer argued, citing similar rulings by other high courts protecting candidates from disqualification over marginal differences.

The government opposed the plea, claiming that the rounding-off rule applies only at the advanced medical examination stage and not at the initial physical standards test (PST).

Rejecting this argument, a division bench of Justice Ravindra V. Ghuge and Justice Ashwin D. Bhobe ruled that once the guidelines provide for rounding off, the benefit must be extended at the initial recruitment rounds as well and noted that preventing the petitioners from advancing to next rounds due to a shortfall of a few millimeters height would be grave injustice.

“The disqualification of the petitioners at the PST stage on account of their height being 164.7 cm and 164.6 cm, respectively, is illegal and arbitrary,” the bench held, directing the selection authorities to round off their height to 165 cm and qualify them for the next round of the recruitment process.