Supreme Court directs JPSC to appoint Scheduled Tribe woman who missed medical test due to date confusion

The Supreme Court recently directed the Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) to appoint a Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidate to the State civil services after she had missed out on selection because she failed to attend the medical test owing to confusion in the notified dates.

A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta set aside the order of the Jharkhand High Court which had upheld JPSC’s rejection of the candidature of petitioner Shreya Kumari Tirkey.

The High Court had dismissed her writ petition and intra-court appeal on the ground that she failed to appear for the medical test the day after her interview.

The Supreme Court noted that Tirkey had qualified the preliminary and mains examinations and appeared for the interview and document verification, but did not attend the medical examination.

The Court criticised the rejection of her candidature and said that procedure should not be made a tool to deny justice.

“Procedure, a handmaiden to justice, should never be made a tool to deny justice or perpetuate injustice, by any oppressive or punitive use,” the Court stated.

Even if Tirkey was negligent, she deserves leniency, the Court opined.

“We therefore, fail to understand why would the appellant intentionally omit to appear for medical examination and thus, be punished so disproportionately as has been done in this case. Even if it is accepted that the appellant was negligent in not being available for medical examination as per prescribed schedule, the appellant deserves to be dealt leniently,” the order stated.

The Bench also drew from its earlier judgment in Nitisha v. Union of India to hold that indirect discrimination principles apply to recruitment instructions.

“We thus, have no hesitation to hold that non-appearance for medical examination without there being a proper clarity of which day the candidate is expected to appear is discriminatory qua the present appellant.”

In view of the above, the Court directed JPSC to conduct her medical test afresh.

“We direct respondent no. 3 to take steps to conduct the medical examination of the appellant. In case the appellant successfully qualifies the medical examination. We further direct the respondents to create a supernumerary post for appointment of the appellant,” the Bench ordered.

The Court clarified that she would be entitled to continuity of service, seniority and increments from the date the last selected candidate joined, but no financial benefits would be extended for the said period.

Tirkey was represented by advocates Neeraj Shekhar, Kshama Sharma, Ramendra Vikram Singh, Rajesh Maurya and Ujjwal Ashutosh.

Advocates Pallavi Langar, Himanshu Shekhar, Parth Shekhar, Vijay Singh, Surajit Basu, Kirtikar Sukul, Aarti Harish Bhandari and Ugranath Kumar appeared on behalf of the respondents.

[Read Order]