Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 5 (IANS) The Delhi High Court has asked the national airlines to conduct the re-examination of an aspiring pilot whose selection was denied on medical grounds despite having passed the written test and interview.
“Denial of re-examination would result in injustice to the student,” Justice Siddharth Mridul told National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL) in a judgement earlier this week.

The NACIL is the government owned company created to facilitate the merger of the two main state-owned airlines in India - Air India and Indian Airlines.

The court was hearing the plea of Abhishek Antil who had applied for the post of cadet pilot but the company declared him medically unfit because he was found suffering from hypothyroidism.

According to Antil, he had successfully cleared the medical evaluation and other tests conducted by the Indian Air Force (IAF) authorities in March 2007 and had been selected for the technical branch as a permanent commissioned officer.

He said medical tests have proved he was not suffering from the disease.

But the airline counsel dismissed the medical reports saying medication can suppress the results and prevent hypothyroidism from being detected during tests.

The airline counsel contended that the company had no policy to conduct re-examination.

But Justice Mridul said, “No harm or prejudice is likely to be caused to the airline if the petitioner was examined medically once again. If he fails the medical re-examination, he would obviously not be selected for the post.”

The court directed the airline to consider the candidate for the necessary training if he cleared the medical test.