Orissa HC Rejects Petitions Against Recruitment Of Initial Appointee Teachers

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has cleared the way for the state government to go ahead with appointment of Initial Appointee Teachers as it rejected the petitions, filed against selection process, on the basis of lack of merit.

The single judge bench of Justice SK Panigrahi dismissed the writ petitions filed by Lalatendu Mishra and others challenging the recruitment process of the Directorate of Secondary Education (DSE). “I have no hesitation in coming to the conclusion that the petitioners cannot be granted any relief in these writ petitions and the present writ petitions are liable to be dismissed, being devoid of merit,” a local TV channel quoted Justice Panigrahi as stating.

The DSE had come out with an advertisement seeking applications from suitable candidates for recruitment of 11,403 Initial Appointee Teachers in secondary schools on December 23, 2021. After due process of selection, the Directorate announced the draft merit list of the selected candidates last month.

Of the total teacher posts, 3308 are of TGT Arts, 2370 TGT Science (PCM), 1544 TGT Science (CBZ), 1753 Hindi teacher, 1188 Sanskrit teacher, 22 Telugu teacher and 1218 Physical Education Teacher.

But the petitioners moved the High Court challenging the recruitment on the ground that the advertisement does not conform to the provisions of the Odisha Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (For Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Act, 1975.

They that the advertisement did not prescribe minimum pass mark for the Computer Based Test. Besides, the government availed the services of a blacklisted company for conducting the Computer Based Competitive examination, they added.