HC Overturns Order Quashing OPSC Merit List For ASO Recruitment In Odisha

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court on Friday upheld the merit list of 1,104 candidates published by the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) for recruitment of Assistant Section Officers (ASO).

While ruling that there were no irregularities, the court directed for resumption of the selection process.

“We apprised the High Court that the OPSC has the power to shortlist the candidates. The commission can either fix subject-wise qualifying marks or aggregate qualifying marks as per its decision. The same was mentioned in the advertisement for the recruitment exam,” the lawyer appearing for the OPSC told mediapersons.

The verdict came almost 10 days after the HC reserved its judgment on two writ appeals filed by Kabita Jena and Satyabrata Nayak, who were among those shortlisted in OPSC’s merit list, notified on November 7, 2022. The petitioners had challenged a May 19 order in which a single judge had quashed the merit list notified by OPSC for recruitment of 796 ASOs over introduction of cut-off marks for different subjects for preparing merit list after the written examination and conformed it again on July 31 by rejecting a review petition.

The written examination was conducted by OPSC on August 27, 2022, for recruitment of 796 ASOs in Group B of Odisha Secretariat Service. While 1,48, 888 candidates appeared the examination, OPSC had notified a merit list of 1,104 candidates for document verification and skill test which was approximately 1.5 times of the vacancies advertised.