Scientist with a muscular dystrophy, who cracked UPSC four times, denied service by DoPT

A 28-year-old scientist with muscular dystrophy, who has passed the Civil Services Examination four times was denied service allocation by Department of Personnel and Training. As Kartik Kansal approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), the DoPT informed the tribunal that the candidate does not meet the physical standards required for the service.

Kartik Kansal, currently employed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has been wheelchair-bound since the age of 12 and learned to write after his muscles weakened. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Roorkee, Mr. Kansal is a resident of Uttarakhand.

Mr. Kansal’s case contrasts sharply with that of trainee Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Puja Khedkar, who faces a criminal case for allegedly forging documents and misusing the quota for people with benchmark disabilities (PwBD) to gain entry into the service.Despite the CAT ruling in 2023 that she was liable to have her candidature canceled due to her failure to appear before a medical board at AIIMS, Delhi, on six occasions to verify her disability under “visually impaired and mental illness” criteria, Ms. Khedkar retained her job. She retook the examination in 2022, secured a rank of 821, and was admitted into the IAS by changing the disability criteria to “visually impaired and hearing loss.” A medical board at AIIMS certified her disability at 47%, above the 40% threshold, leading to her allocation to the IAS by the DoPT. The DoPT was a respondent in the CAT petition filed by Ms. Khedkar.

According to the CSE-2021 notification, 22 of the total 712 vacancies were reserved for PwBD candidates, including six vacancies for locomotor disabilities such as cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims, and muscular dystrophy. Despite the PwBD reservation, other requirements, such as writing and seeing abilities certified by a medical board, are considered in service allocation. In 2021, Mr. Kansal secured a rank of 271 but was denied a service, although, according to his petition, he was eligible for the Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax).