New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has set aside an order of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) directing DTC to conduct a fourth round of medical tests to examine whether around 600 of its drivers, who were earlier declared medically unfit, are colour blind.
A bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Vipin Sanghi was of the view that the Tribunal's "speculative reasoning", suspecting appropriateness of the technology used in the third round of tests to ascertain the colour blindness, was "unsustainable".
The court's order to quash CAT's decision to conduct a fourth round of colour blind tests will adversely impact the effort of the around 600 DTC drivers to get back their jobs.
They were laid off by DTC after being found suffering from the disease in the third round of medical tests in 2013. Setting the aside the Tribunal's order, the bench also held that CAT "cannot act as an authority over the medical expert and sans a strong reason, based on relevant material, it cannot hold that the technology used by three separate medical teams to test colour blindness was inappropriate or outdated."
The court was also of the view that CAT could not have issued directions for a fourth round of tests as "no rule, administrative circular, law or guideline was shown to have been violated" in issuing the decision to hold a third round of medical examination.
"Absent proven mala fides, or illegality, procedural irregularity or violation of a binding instruction or guideline, CAT could not have directed yet another medical test - to be held in a particular manner. "In the present case, no rule, administrative circular, law or guideline was shown to have been violated; there was no allegation of lack of bona fides in the decision to hold a third medical test.
In these circumstances, CAT's order directing a fourth medical test, was unwarranted," the court said. The issue pertained to the laying off of several DTC drivers who were found suffering from colour blindness after a medical examination by three independent boards in 2013.
DTC had decided to conduct the medical examination as one of its drivers was involved in an accident and then found to be suffering from colour blindness. Since the driver concerned belonged to a batch of around 600 recruits who were initially found colour blind and then declared fit by a panel of doctors of Guru Nanak Eye Centre (GNEC), DTC decided to re-examine their fitness by way of the third round of tests.
As all the drivers who were sent for the third round of tests were found medically unfit on account of being colour blind, they were laid off from work by DTC in 2013. This decision was challenged by them before CAT which on October 8, 2013, directed DTC to conduct a fourth round of tests using the infrastructure of GNEC.
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