CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Wednesday adjourned to January 30 further hearing on the dispute over the process Odisha School Education Programme Authority (OSEPA) adopted for final selection of junior teachers in primary and upper primary schools across the state.
Accordingly, the single-judge bench of Justice Biraja Prasanna Satapathy extended the restriction imposed by the court on the final selection and appointment of junior teachers till that date.
The court was hearing the petition which Chintamani Bhuian and three others filed alleging OSEPA after conducting a CBT (computer-based test) examination published a draft merit list on January 15 without adhering to the guidelines issued by the School and Mass Education department for recruitment of junior teachers in the primary schools.
The adjournment came after Justice Satapathy found that though the state government filed an affidavit claiming that it already prepared a district-wise and category-wise draft merit list separately across 30 districts, the draft merit list published on January 15 had not been recalled.
Bhuian, on the other hand, filed an affidavit alleging that the claim of the government about preparation of a district-wise and category-wise draft merit list is misleading as it still did not strictly adhere to the guidelines.
While making the allegation, the affidavit cited the draft merit list prepared for Balasore district in which candidates from other districts who had not given Balasore district as first preference had found place.
OSEPA had invited applications to recruit junior teachers on September 10, 2023 with October 10, 2023 as last date for submitting applications through online mode. After conducting a CBT examination, OSEPA published the draft merit list of 18,805 candidates and fixed January 20 and 21 for verification of documents.