NEW DELHI:
In the midst of the row over trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar allegedly misusing the disability quota, a case has surfaced of a candidate with muscular dystrophy being denied any service despite having cleared the civil services four times.
Kartik Kansal, who studied mechanical engineering in IIT Roorkee, is currently a scientist in Isro, a post for which he was selected through all-India central recruitment.Kartik, who has been using a wheelchair since the age of 14, was selected for the civil services four times – in 2019 (rank 813), 2021 (271), 2022 (784) and 2023 (829).
In 2021, when he was ranked 271, even without a disability quota he ought to have got the IAS, since that year those ranked 272 and 273 got IAS. However, in 2021, muscular dystrophy was not included in the list of conditions in functional classification eligible for IAS.
‘Cerebral palsy allowed for IAS, why not muscular dystrophy?
Muscular dystrophy was included in the list for Indian Revenue Service (income Tax) Group A and Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Excise), which were his second and third choices.
In 2019, when Kartik Kansal got 813 rank, he could easily have been allotted a service as there were 15 vacancies for locomotor disability and only 14 were filled. In 2021, there were seven vacancies in the locomotor disability category and only four were filled. He ranked number one in the category.
The medical board in AIIMS certified that he had muscular weakness and both his arms and legs were affected by muscular dystrophy. Inexplicably, for IAS, persons with both arms and legs affected are eligible but persons with muscular dystrophy are not. The board noted that he “can do manipulation with fingers with difficulty and can do mobility with motorised wheelchair”. It also certified that he could see, hear speak, communicate, read and write though he could not stand, walk, pull, push, lift, crouch, bend, kneel, jump or climb. Though his original disability certificate put his level of disability at 60%, the AIIMS medical board deemed it 90%.
A retired IAS officer, Sanjeev Gupta, took up Kartik’s cause and tweeted in his support pointing out that it was a travesty of justice that Kartik who wrote the civil services without even using a scribe except for help in going to the toilet, and who met all the physical requirements for the job of IAS and IRS was not given any service.
When he sought the reason for rejection through the central portal for grievance redressal, he got a reply stating: “PWBD candidates are allocated service as per the functional classification and physical requirements prescribed by different cadre controlling authorities. There were no matching services at your turn as per your rank.”
“Why should functional classifications and physical requirements for similar nature of work vary across services? If cerebral palsy is allowed for IAS, why not muscular dystrophy? Thankfully, since 2024 everything has been merged into one. There will be no such errors now. As per the new merged criteria too, Kartik is eligible to get IAS and true justice will be done by giving him IAS if there is a carry forward vacancy from previous years. This will partly undo the injustice meted out to him till now,” said Gupta.
“By joining the civil services, I wanted to prove that even people like me can do it. But I cannot comment further on the issue since it is sub judice,” said Kartik, whose case pertaining to this issue is pending in Central Administrative Tribunal.