Maha Tribunal Orders Fresh Height Test for Woman Police Recruitment Candidate

Nagpur: The Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal, Nagpur bench, recently directed authorities to re-measure the height of a woman candidate who was declared ineligible in the police recruitment process for failing the height criterion.A division bench comprising Justice (Retd) Vinay Joshi, vice-chairman, and Nitin Gadre, member (administrative), passed the order while hearing an original application filed by Wrushali Markand against the Maharashtra govt and others.The applicant challenged the rejection of her candidature through counsel Amit Tripathi and Poonam Yadav on the ground that she did not meet the mandatory height requirement of 155cm for female candidates in the police recruitment process.According to records placed before the tribunal, Markand's height was initially measured at 154.6cm using an electronic calibrated device. Following her objection, authorities conducted re-measurements twice, both of which recorded her height at 154.1 cm.During the hearing, Markand argued that in two earlier recruitment drives for the same post in different districts, she met the required 155cm criterion. The tribunal sought instructions from the state, after which it informed that the department was willing to re-verify the candidate's height to eliminate any doubts.Accepting the proposal, the bench directed the authorities to conduct a fresh measurement using the electronic calibrated device in the presence of a medical officer. The tribunal further ordered that a manual measurement also be carried out.However, the tribunal declined the applicant's request to refer the matter to a medical board, stating it did not find "any special case" to justify such a step. The bench also refused to consider the applicant's argument comparing her measurements with those of other candidates, observing such comparisons were not relevant to determining her eligibility.The tribunal directed Markand to appear before the concerned authority on March 11 for the re-measurement exercise. With these directives, the bench disposed of the application.