ASO Recruitment Row In Odisha: HC Directs OPSC To Notify Fresh Merit List In 6 Weeks

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court on Friday directed Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) to publish the fresh merit list for for recruitment of 796 assistant section officers (ASOs) in Group B posts in the Odisha Secretariat Service within six weeks.

This came three days after the HC rejected two petitions for review and recall of its May 19 order that had quashed the merit list prepared by OPSC. It had then directed the state agency to prepare the new list, adhering to the Odisha Secretariat Service (Method of Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2016, and notify it within two months.

The written examination was conducted by OPSC on August 27, 2022. While 1,48,888 candidates appeared the examination, the OPSC notified a merit list selecting 1,104 candidates for document verification and skill test, which was approximately 1.5 times of the 796 vacancies advertised, on November 7, 2022.

Following which, Rajat Kumar Mishra and four others, who were not among the shortlisted candidates, moved the court, challenging the introduction of cut-off marks for different subjects for preparing the merit list after the written examination. The high court then ruled that OPSC had no authority to fix the minimum qualifying mark subject-wise after the written test was over. “From the facts of the present case, it appears that the OPSC has acted mechanically without verifying the rules,” it had observed.

A review petition was filed by Kabita Jena and four others while Ruksana Ara Begum and four others filed a petition for its recall on the ground that the May 19 order was passed without including the candidates, who were in the merit list, as parties in the case. The single judge bench of Justice AK Mohapatra, however, rejected both petitions on the ground of lack of merit.