'Vitiligo Valid Reason For Rejecting Central Armed Force Candidate': Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court in a landmark decision held that a candidate suffering from vitiligo is not entitled to be recruited into the central armed forces.

The candidate filed a petition against rejection of his candidature for Assistant Commandant in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

It was argued that though the candidate was suffering from vitiligo, the same was under a covered area and in the Indian Air Force, candidates suffering from vitiligo can be permitted to be enrolled if the vitiligo is in a covered area of the body.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the ITBP through the Central Government Standing Counsel, Ashish Dixit Advocate, said vitiligo is a specific disability in the recruitment rules to the ITBP, and the same was notified in the advertisement.

Mr Dixit said the Home Ministry guidelines of 2015 also said vitiligo to be grounds for rejection.

A division bench of Justice Navin Chawla and Justice Shailender Kaur accepted the contention.

"... it is clear that the disease of vitiligo is an absolute reason for rejection of the candidature. Merely because in other armed forces the disqualification is further qualified or whittled down, it cannot be a ground to import that condition into the present recruitment process. The respondent, in fact, is bound to scrupulously follow the advertisement and the conditions laid down therein. Applying which, the petitioner has been rightly rejected from being considered for the said post," the court said.

Vitiligo is a chronic (long-lasting) autoimmune disorder that causes patches of skin to lose pigment or colour. This happens when melanocytes - skin cells that make pigment - are attacked and destroyed, causing the skin to turn a milky-white colour.