HC seeks reply on plea of visually impaired man who lost out on Railway job

New Delhi, Dec 29: The Delhi High Court has sought the Centre's response on a visually impaired man's plea that he be appointed on a group D railway post he has qualified for but could not join as sufficient opportunity was not given to him to get his documents verified.

Justice Suresh Kumar Kait also asked the Indian Railways to be ready with its stand by the next date of hearing, January 10, or its Chief Personnel Officer will have present himself in the court that day.

The direction came on a plea by Ranjit Kumar Gupta -- an Other Backward Class (OBC) candidate who suffers from 100 per cent visual impairment -- who claimed that he was not informed in time that the verification date of his documents would be August 12, 2016.

He has said his call letter was also uploaded on the Railway Recruitment Cell (RRC) on that day only.

As a result, he was unable to reach Kolkata where the verification was to be carried out on August 12, 2016, he has said in the petition, filed through advocate Arpit Bhargava.

Gupta's claims were denied by the RRC.

The candidate has sought that he be again issued a call letter and be appointed to the group D post for which he had qualified.

He has also sought a vigilance enquiry in the case.

In his plea, the candidate has claimed that according to the Railway Board guidelines on exams, a second date was to be given for document verification if a candidate could not appear in the first one.

When he sought a second date, the RRC declined his request, the petition has said, adding that subsequently he had filed a complaint before the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities.

The commissioner, however, after some hearing, disposed of his complaint without giving any reasons, the petitioner has alleged.

Thereafter, he had moved the high court which in March this year had asked him to make a representation before the RRC which was directed to deal with it by passing a reasoned order.

The petitioner has claimed that RRC did not pass a reasoned order and merely rejected his representation after which he met the railway minister also, but got no relief and, therefore, he moved the high court again.

In his petition, Gupta has alleged that while other candidates who missed their respective first date for document verification were granted a second opportunity, he was not given the same benefit in violation of the Railway Board guidelines.