Six weeks post pregnancy not enough to regain medical fitness, says Delhi HC, asking Centre to review CAPF guidelines

File picture of a Central Armed Police Forces contingent at a training centre in Bhopal
| Photo Credit: A.M. Faruqui

Women seeking to join the Central Armed Police Forces are given only six weeks to lose weight and regain medical fitness after a pregnancy. Deeming this period insufficient, the Delhi High Court has directed the Union government to review its guidelines on the matter.

“This period of six weeks envisaged under the Guidelines to enable a female candidate to regain her medical fitness after going through a pregnancy, in our considered opinion, is extremely short,” said a Bench of Justice Rekha Palli and Justice Shalinder Kaur. They noted that “it may not always be possible for a female candidate, who has undergone a pregnancy, to regain her complete medical fitness and lose the weight within six weeks which she may have gained during nine months of her pregnancy”.

Even under the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, a much longer period of absence from duty has been envisaged, the court said.

BMI too high

The court’s observations came while hearing the plea of a young mother aspiring to join the Seema Sashastra Bal (SSB) as a Constable (Washer Man)-Female. After passing physical endurance and standards tests, she sat for a written test on June 22, 2023. Her name appeared in the merit list when the final results were declared on November 21, 2023. Due to her advanced pregnancy, however, her medical examination was deferred until after delivery.

She delivered a baby on February 24 this year and underwent a medical exam on July 11, where she was declared unfit for being overweight. A subsequent Review Medical Board on July 15 also found her unfit, due to a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25.3, exceeding the CAPFs’ acceptable limit of 25.

She then obtained a medical fitness certificate from the Jaya Arogya Hospital in Gwalior, showing a BMI of 24.8, and submitted a representation requesting her appointment. Receiving no response, she filed a petition before the court.

Reasonable time frame needed

The court said it had no reason to doubt the Centre’s statement that the woman’s BMI was above 25 during the selection process,. However, it added: “We are of the considered view that taking into account the admitted position that the petitioner had delivered a baby barely four months before she was medically examined, she deserves to be granted another opportunity to be examined by a fresh Medical Board as she is reported to having achieved a BMI of less than 25 as per the certificate issued by JA Hospital, a government hospital in Gwalior.”

In case the woman’s BMI is found to be less than 25, she is to be given her appointment, the court said in a September 10 order.

The court also asked the Centre to examine this provision in consultation with concerned medical specialists, and to consider providing a reasonable time frame for a female candidate to regain her medical fitness after a pregnancy.