Delhi High Court upholds MHA policy barring colour-blind recruits in CAPFs

In a significant ruling, the Delhi High Court has upheld the Centre’s 2013 guidelines that bar the recruitment of candidates with defective vision, including colour blindness, into the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and the Assam Rifles (AR).

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had in February 2013 issued the New Policy Guidelines on recruitment and retention in respect of CAPFs and AR personnel having defective vision including colour blindness, barring the recruitment of any person who has defective vision or is colour blind in future.

The Centre had reasoned that personnel of the CAPFs and AR are issued lethal weapons and are expected to use lethal force against insurgents and terrorists. It said that if any of the personnel are not fully fit, he will either not be able to protect himself or his colleagues in a battle with insurgent or terrorist groups or he will run the risk of harming innocent people, especially if his eyesight is weak and he cannot distinguish between uniforms.

This policy was challenged before the High Court by three recruits who were discharged during training after being diagnosed with defective vision.

With the 2013 guidelines outlining the possible adverse effects of recruiting such personnel, a Bench of Justice Subramonium Prasad and Justice Vimal Kumar Yadav, in its November 28 judgment, said it was “not inclined to deem the guidelines as arbitrary, unreasonable or perverse”.

It also noted that at the time when the termination orders were issued to the three petitioners, they were not permanent members of the CISF as they were serving their respective probation periods. It said the petitioners had spent only six months under training at their respective centres.

The petitioners were directly recruited as Constables (General Duty) through a 2015 recruitment advertisement. They cleared the Physical Standard Test, qualified in the written examination and were declared medically fit in the initial medical evaluation. They were subsequently issued appointment letters and sent to their respective training centres.

However, after nearly six months of training, subsequent medical assessments revealed that all three suffered from colour blindness, a condition that the CISF argued poses “hazardous consequences” in a disciplined, combat-linked force where identification of colours is critical.