Dental Surgeon Appointment Case: Orissa HC Asks OPSC Chairman To Appear In Person

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has expressed its displeasure over OPSC’s failure to produce the merit list in the dental surgeon recruitment case and directed its chairman to appear before the court in person.

The High Court issued the order while hearing the case on the selection of candidates through a written test in 2018. Some candidates had moved the court citing wrong questions in the test.

As per the case, the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) had invited applications for 198 dental surgeons in group-A (junior) of Odisha Medical Services (Dental) cadre posts on March 17, 2018. The written examination with objective type questions was held on May 6, 2018. Later, OPSC issued a notice, in which appointment of 171 candidates was recommended on August 9, 2018.

But a controversy arose after some of the unsuccessful candidates questioned their non-selection. They questioned their non-selection on various grounds, including incorrect key answers. Thereafter, an expert committee was constituted to revisit the key answers.

The committee submitted its report on October 5, 2018, and indicated that 12 answers were incorrect. The expert committee also suggested revaluation, which found that 11 of the candidates—who were presently working as dental surgeons— scored below the revised cut-off marks.

The committee also suggested appointment of two more applicants and the Court ordered the OPSC to adjust the two applicants in the appointment list. But it was challenged by the OPSC.

Hearing the case, the High Court had asked OPSC several times to submit the merit list. But the Commission failed to produce the list before the Court.

The High Court came down heavily on OPSC as the latter failed to submit the merit list during hearing again. Expressing, dissatisfaction over the OPSC’s negligence, the High Court asked its chairman to appear before it in person in next hearing on Monday.