No promotion if officer is overweight: Armed Forces Tribunal

Chandigarh, July 16

The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has ruled that an officer cannot be promoted to higher ranks, whether on selection or time scale, if he does not meet the stipulated medical and physical fitness standards even if he is otherwise found to be eligible for elevation.

Upholding the Army’s policy on reducing obesity in its ranks, the AFT has denied promotion to a Lieutenant Colonel whose weight was almost double than the ideal body weight for his height.

The officer, a professional boxer, had moved the tribunal on not being promoted to the rank of Colonel in spite of being approved by the selection board after being held unfit for promotion by a special review medical board (SRMB).

“In view of the fact that the maximum weight variation permissible is only 10 per cent with reference to the ideal body weight and the fact that the weight of the applicant was 140 kg against the ideal body weight of 79 kg, the SRMB was justified in declaring the applicant unfit for promotion,” the tribunal has ruled. — TNS