CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has set aside the Odisha Staff Selection Commission’s (OSSC) order debarring 58 aspirants for junior engineer (civil) posts from appearing in any OSSC examination for six years, holding the punishment to be not just and proper.
A batch of 29 petitions had challenged the OSSC’s order dated May 12, 2025, by which the candidates were debarred from July 16, 2023 to July 15, 2029, with cancellation of their candidature in all examinations applied for during that period. The action was taken in connection with question paper leak.
The case arose out of the recruitment process for 1,008 posts of junior engineer (civil), advertised on November 2, 2022. After the preliminary examination held on June 4, 2023, the main written examination was conducted on July 16, 2023. The OSSC cancelled the July 16 examination and rescheduled it for September 3, 2023, following registration of a case involving leakage of question papers at the Sahadevkhunta police station and reports of the Balasore SP.
Though final results were published on November 4, 2023, the results of 58 candidates were withheld, and the impugned debarment order was issued on May 12, 2025.
Justice Biraja Prasanna Satapathy noted that the petitioners had not yet been charge-sheeted in the criminal case. “The impugned order passed by the Commission in debarring the petitioners to appear in any of the examination conducted by the Commission for a period of 6 years. is disproportionate to the alleged misconduct of the petitioners.”
Considering that the criminal investigation is still open, the court declined to order immediate publication of the petitioners’ results. It, however, ruled that the debarment order was “not just and proper” and quashed it, granting liberty to the candidates to participate in future OSSC recruitment.
However, Justice Satapathy clarified that the quashed order will stand automatically revived if any petitioner is charge-sheeted in the case upon completion of investigation.
The court directed that the results of the petitioners who appeared in the September 3, 2023 examination be published if they are not charge-sheeted upon completion of the investigation by June 2026, with consequential appointments to follow for those found successful.