Taking note of the rejection of an application of a candidate for the post of motor vehicle inspector due to a wrong report given by the medical board set up by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC), the High Court of Karnataka has directed the State government to set up a permanent medical board for examination of candidates for all recruitments done through the KPSC.
“It is high time for the State Government to appoint a permanent medical board to ensure that there must be transparency in the selection process instead of giving a free hand to the KPSC to choose a medical board and experts in all the recruitments to be conducted by the KPSC,” the court said.
The need to set up a permanent medical board by the government was to ensure that a genuine candidate should not be deprived of opportunity and justice needs to be done in all fairness to all the candidates in a transparent manner, the court observed.
Otherwise, the court said, the KPSC officer concerned would refer either Bowring hospital or Minto hospital according to the whims and fancies based on the candidature.
A Division Bench comprising Justice B. Veerappa and Justice S. Rachaiah issued the direction while allowing a petition filed by Shivananje Gowda B.N., an applicant for the post of motor vehicle inspector.
The application of the petitioner was rejected by the KPSC based on the report of the medical board, which was set up by the KPSC in Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital in Bengaluru, which had said that the petitioner has colour blindness to red and green colours and he is half-a-centimetre short of the minimum prescribed height.
The petitioner, who had produced a medical certificate from the same hospital along with his application that had found him fulfilling all the medical requirements, had moved the High Court after the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal had rejected his plea questioning the correctness of the medical certificate issued by the board set up by the KPSC.
The court, which had referred the petitioner to Minto Hospital, Bengaluru, for an independent medical examination, found from the report that he fulfilled the height requirement as well as had normal vision without any colour blindness.
Following this, the Bench directed the KPSC to consider the application of the petitioner based on the medical report submitted to the court.
