‘Arbitrary’ Height Requirements for Firefighter Positions in Municipal Corporations Should Not Affect Women: HC
The Bombay High Court has declared that it is “arbitrary” for municipal corporations to have differing height qualifying requirements for women seeking firefighting posts.
A case filed by female applicants who took part in the Pune Municipal Corporation’s fireman selection procedure was being heard by a division bench made up of Justices GS Kulkarni and Jitendra Jain.
The female applicants claimed that since they didn’t match the corporation’s height requirements, they were the target of discrimination.
The Pune Municipal Corporation states that in order for women to be considered for the selection process, they need to be at least 162 cm tall.
The petitioners claimed that a minimum height criterion of 157 cm had been established by the Maharashtra Fire Brigade Service Administration for female applicants seeking to fill the position of fire extinguisher.
They also said that numerous other comparable organizations still required 157 cm of height for applicants for such offices, while only Pune Corporation, Nagpur Municipal Corporation, Mumbai Municipal Corporation, and Thane Municipal Corporation had accepted the 162 cm standard for women candidates.
According to the division bench, the state government’s arbitrary acceptance of such standards or policies cannot cause women applicants to suffer.
“We believe that the petitioners have shown a prima facie allegation of apparent discrimination. various criteria cannot apply to various organizations. The court said that discrimination against female applicants who are in comparable circumstances cannot be tolerated by the state government via arbitrary policies or the arbitrary endorsement of such standards.
The Pune Municipal Corporation is instructed to let the petitioners to take part in the selection process and not exclude them for not fulfilling the minimum height standard of 162 cm, as per the interim relief granted by the court to them.
On November 9, the top court will consider the petition.
