Orissa HC Issues Notice To Govt & OPRB On Recruitment Test For SI Posts

Cuttack: Orissa High Court has issued a notice to state government and Odisha Police Recruitment Board (OPRB) in a case of alleged irregularities in selection process for appointment to sub-inspector (SI) posts.

The High Court issued the notice after hearing a petition filed by Subash Senapati seeking cancellation of final merit list of selected candidates for SI posts.

The petitioner stated that the OPRB had advertised on June 22, 2021, seeking application for recruitment to SI posts. As part of selection process, the Board announced to conduct written tests on two papers in two sittings in different districts of the state on November 26, 2023.

The candidates were mistakenly given question paper II instead of paper I in the first sitting at the examination centre in Women’s College, Khurda. Around 20 minutes after, the officials conducting the examination realised the mistake and took back the question papers from the candidates. The candidates were made to wait till second sitting and given the paper II again.

As the selection tests were conducted smoothly in all other centres in the state, only the candidates for Khurda centre were asked to appear at the test for paper I on December 10, 2023.

The petitioner alleged that instead of cancelling the examination of paper I and holding the test again in all centres, the OPRB announced the written test results on December 21 and released the final merit list on December 31, 2023.

Besides, the Board had stated at the time of announcing the written test results that the cut-off mark for the selected candidates was 185. But in the final merit list, the cut-off mark was revised to 172, the petitioner said.

Considering these irregularities, the petitioner sought the High Court’s intervention to cancel the entire selection process for SI posts. The HC has set next date hearing for the case on January 29.