CAT issues notice on plea against exclusion of cerebral palsy for JE (Electrical) post

Srinagar, May 1: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in Srinagar has issued notice on a plea against the exclusion of “cerebral palsy” as eligible disability for Junior Engineer (Electrical) post, even as it ordered not to fill up one post in pursuance of the Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board (SSB) advertisement notice dated February 27, 2025.

A candidate, Amir Suhail Wani’s plea is that he is a Person with Benchmark Disability (PwBD) as he suffers from “Spastic Cerebral Palsy with Dysphasia”, which constitutes a 50% Locomotor Disability.

Wani’s recommendation was withheld by the JKSSB after he figured in the provisional selection merit list of JE (Electrical) issued on February 23 this year to which he is aggrieved of.

A division bench of M S Latif, Member (Judicial) and Prasant Kumar, Member (Administrative) ordered for reserving one post of JE(Electrical) in response to Wani’s plea.

Issuing notice on the aggrieved candidate’s plea for a response to be filed by May 26, the Tribunal held that prima facie a case for indulgence was made out. “And in order to preserve the subject matter of the lis, till the next date of hearing and subject to objections of the other side, one post of Junior Engineer (Electrical) shall not be filled up in the specific category in which the applicant has applied”, it said.

The Tribunal, at the very threshold, in its order observed that “being disabled should not mean being disqualified from having access to other aspects of life”. The recruiting agencies are under an extra burden to ensure that the rights of these specially-abled persons are not violated at any cost, it said.

In response to one of the points during the proceeding, the Tribunal observed “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.

Wani contended that fulfilling all eligibility criteria, he submitted his online application on March 8, 2025 under Open Merit (OM) and PwBD categories for the post of JE (Electrical). His candidature was provisionally accepted and he was allowed to appear in JKSSB’s OMR based written examination on October 25, 2025. In the provisional selection list published on February 23, he figured in the merit.

The SSB withheld Wani’s recommendation subject to clarification regarding his disability certificate and production of a ‘One and the Same Person’ certificate to reconcile a minor variation in parentage particulars across documents.

On February 24, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Srinagar constituted a Medical Board and issued a clarification certifying that Wani is a known case of Cerebral Palsy with Spastic Quadriparesis, substantiating that the certificate issued is entirely genuine. Besides, the Executive Magistrate (Tehsildar) concerned issued a certificate clarifying the minor parentage variation, establishing beyond doubt Wani’s identity.

Subsequently, Wani submitted a detailed representation to the Chairman of JKSSB requesting the release of his withheld recommendation. However, the Board subjected Wani to another Medical Board examination headed by the Principal, GMC, Srinagar and other Board members.

Wani submits that the Medical Board’s findings have been placed in a “sealed cover” with a “pre-determined intent to declare him ineligible” based on what he termed “un an ultra vires executive fiat—Government Order No. 55- JK(SWD) of 2021”. He seeks to quash this order.

 While Wani pleads that there exists a mala fide intent to reject his candidature in violation to the mandate of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016, he seeks direction to quash the Medical Board’s findings kept in a sealed cover.

He also seeks the Court’s intervention to declare the Government Order No. 59-JK(SWD) of 2021 dated April 15, 2021, as ultra vires the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, and S.0 127 of 2020, to the extent that it arbitrarily excludes “Cerebral Palsy” from the identified benchmark disabilities for the post of JE (Electrical).

Seeking to quash the executive order, Wani submits that the same arbitrarily restricts the eligible disabilities for JE (Electrical) to “One Leg” and “Hearing Impairment,” thereby unconstitutionally excluding “Cerebral Palsy.”

“In the instant case, the Expert Committee as was constituted, is in violation of Section 33, as instead of giving the representation of persons with benchmark disabilities, a person from an NGO dealing with the disabilities has been made a member”, submits the aggrieved candidate. Moreover, he pleads that the certificate of the medical Board issued by the SMHS Hospital is not completely reliable.