HC: No need to monitor BP of forest job aspirants

Bhubaneswar: The Orissa High Court has ruled that there is no such requirement to monitor the blood pressure (BP) of the candidates aspiring for forest officers’ post and to disqualify them from the recruitment test solely on the basis of BP measurement. The High Court’s direction came in the wake of a batch of writ petitions filed by at least nine candidates for the Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) and Forest Ranger post who were disqualified for the physical endurance test after qualifying the written test.

Describing the petitioners’ disqualification as arbitrary and illegal, a single-judge bench of Justice Aditya Kumar Mohapatra Monday said, “The Court is of the considered view that there is no such provision to disqualify a candidate only on the basis of the measurement of blood pressure of such candidates.

Therefore, this Court has no hesitation in coming to a conclusion that the Opposite Parties (government have committed a gross error of law by not adhering to the terms and conditions of the advertisement as well as the Rules, 2013 and, as such, their conduct can very well be declared as illegal and arbitrary.” The petitioners who were disqualified from appearing the physical endurance test have already qualified the combined written test of Forest Ranger and ACF posts. They sought High Court’s intervention seeking a direction to the state government to allow them to participate in the next phase of recruitment test, i.e. Physical Endurance Test of Walking, and to permit them to participate in the viva voce test.

In May, 2023, the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) published an online notification for recruitment to 45 ACF posts (Group A – JB) and 131 Forest Ranger (Group-B) posts under Odisha Forest Service Cadre. The petitioners alleged that the digital instrument for measuring BP was a faulty one and the same did not reflect the correct reading. The recruitment clause provided that the candidates must pass the physical endurance test of walking which has been prescribed as 25 km in four hours for male candidates and 16 km in four hours for female candidates. “The Court directs the Opposite Parties to allow the petitioners to participate in the physical endurance test subject to the petitioners furnishing an undertaking supported by a certificate from a registered medical practitioner/physician that their blood pressure is normal.

Such physical endurance tests be conducted by the opposite parties within a period of four weeks from the date of communication of this order,” Justice Mohapatra directed the state government in the order. It is needless to mention here that in the event the petitioners are found suitable in the physical endurance test, they shall be allowed to participate in further recruitment process, the court said. The final result of the recruitment shall depend upon the performance of the petitioners in such test, the order read.

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