BENGALURU: When a government servant, on account of medically substantiated limitations, expresses an inability to discharge physically demanding duties, the competent authority is required to examine such representation with due sensitivity and in accordance with law, the Karnataka High Court said, while directing the Bengaluru South Corporation Commissioner to consider the petitioner’s plea.
The petitioner, Sharadamma KS, sought exemption from work as a census enumerator on medical grounds as she could not discharge such duties, and a reasoned order as per law.
Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum passed the order recently while disposing of Sharadamma’s petition, after she approached the court as the commissioner did not consider her representations dated April 8 and 10, seeking exemption from duties for house listing and housing census operations.
In order to substantiate her inability to discharge such duties, the petitioner furnished a medical certificate issued by the competent authority in the district hospital, which declared the petitioner medically unfit to stand for prolonged periods and also unable to walk long distances.
Noting that the nature of duties attached to census work, particularly house listing and enumeration, require extensive physical exertion, including prolonged standing, walking and undertaking door-to-door data collection, the court observed that it cannot lose sight of the fact that the census, though of paramount public importance, demands considerable physical endurance from personnel engaged in such tasks.