Kerala High Court advises Center to formulate employment protocol for hepatitis B patients

The Kerala High Court held that keeping people suffering from Hepatitis B away from the civil/public sector was against the spirit of the times and detrimental to the collective conscience of the civilized world and therefore recommended that the Union government formulate a protocol in this regard. treat.

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The court noted that hepatitis B is a “disease transmitted through blood and body fluids,” and it is clear that it cannot be transmitted unless it is transmitted in this way; rather than through touch, saliva, sharing food, etc. That is why, even for people living with HIV, internationally adopted protocols prohibit discrimination simply because a person is infected. Therefore, one cannot understand how The Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancored Ltd. (FACT) could take the opposite stance.

Justice Devan Ramachandran, while delivering the observations, directed FACT to conduct further medical examination of the petitioner who was denied appointment and consider appointment of the petitioner to the post of Assistant (General) based on the opinion of the Medical Board.

Medical board skinned

The court also criticized the report of the medical board examining the petitioner. The judge wanted to know how the board could declare a person unfit simply because he had hepatitis B. This is exacerbated by the fact that the report makes almost no mention of the applicant’s health. It did not indicate whether the petitioner’s circumstances would render him ineligible or incapable of being entrusted with tasks related to the position for which he applied.

central policy

Solicitor General of India Manu said that the federal government has made it clear that no one can be denied civil/public office simply because he has a blood-borne disease like hepatitis B or HIV. He added that while the Indian government has policies in place for people living with HIV, it has not yet formulated such a policy for people with hepatitis B as it is generally considered unacceptable to deprive these people of employment opportunities. The physical condition of a person due to infection is definitely a criterion to be kept in mind in public sector undertakings.