Date:10/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/10/stories/2008101052310400.htm

New Delhi

High Court notice to Centre, Seema Suraksha Bal

Staff Reporter

On petition challenging rejection of a woman’s job application

‘The denial is a violation of the Fundamental Right of equal opportunity for employment’
‘Rejection on medical grounds was arbitrary and discriminatory’

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has issued notices to the Centre and the para-military Sashastra Seema Suraksha Bal on a petition by a woman challenging rejection of her application for recruitment to the force on grounds of a congenital sexual anomaly.

The petitioner submitted that the SSSB authorities refused to recruit her saying she suffered from pseudo-hermaphroditism. It is a congenital sexual anomaly. People suffering from this disability are born with secondary sex characteristics.

Counsel for the petitioner, Geeta Luthra, submitted that she had been operated upon five years ago to correct the anomaly and doctors thereafter had certified that she was emotionally, physically and psychologically a woman.

Challenging the rejection of her application by a panel of doctors of the Force, Ms. Luthra submitted that the denial of employment to her was a violation of the Fundamental Right of equal opportunity for employment.

The petitioner submitted that the rejection of her application on medical grounds was arbitrary and discriminatory.

Issuing the notices, a Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice S. K. Kaul and Justice M. C. Garg observed that one could not deny employment to a person on grounds of sexual disability unless it was proved that the candidate was unable to meet the demands of the job due to the disability.