Orissa High Court Quashes Petitions Alleging Irregularities In ASO Exam

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court on Monday declined to entertain a batch of petitions filed by candidates alleging irregularities in the selection process of the Assistant Section Officer (ASO) examination.

The court directed the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) to publish the result of the recruitment examination as per the policy of 2016.

The court also directed the Commission to publish the marks of all the candidates who appeared in the examination. The OPSC has been asked to release the marks after completion of the recruitment process.

The petitioners had claimed that the OPSC had in December 2021 published the advertisement to fill up 796 posts of ASO but did not specify the method or conditions of selection. It issued a corrigendum based on its previous guidelines of September 3, 2016 in February saying the merit list will contain the caste, gender, name and roll number of candidates but the marks secured by them will not be discussed.

They alleged that it was done to facilitate some candidates in the examination and that the OPSC failed to maintain transparency in the selection process.

The court after hearing the arguments ordered preparation of merit list as per the guidelines of September 3, 2016.

The court further asked the OPSC to take the merit list already released by it but has to publish details regarding marks secured by candidates and cut off marks.

The ASO examination was conducted by OPSC to fill up 796 posts under the Odisha Secretariat Service and the result was published November 7. As many as 1104 candidates have cleared the written examination and shortlisted for document verification and skill test.

Following allegation of irregularities in the selection process and demonstration by several aspirants, the OPSC had released a statement terming all the allegations made by the aspirants as baseless and false.