CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has indicted the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) for adopting different norms for government servants and ex-servicemen candidates in the matter of submission of their respective no objection certificate (NOC) and discharge certificate (DC) during civil services recruitment.
The high court on Wednesday was considering a petition filed by Kartik Senapati - an ex-serviceman of Indian Navy whose candidature was rejected during document verification on the ground that his DC was issued after the last date of submission of online application form.
Senapati had successfully cleared both the preliminary and main examination of Odisha Civil Services 2020 and the personality test which was held on September 23, 2022. On analysis of the case records, the high court found that while government servants were being given liberty to produce the NOC at the time of document verification during the last stage of the recruitment process, the ex-servicemen had to produce the DC prior to the last date for submission of the application.
The single judge bench of Justice AK Mohapatra said, “On a careful consideration of the aforesaid factual aspects, this court is of the considered view that the clause providing for submission of the DC within the last date fixed for submission of application form is highly arbitrary and discriminatory. In such view of the matter, this court has no hesitation to hold that the OPSC had no authority to reject the candidature of Kartik Senapati”.
Justice Mohapatra further said the rejection order is ‘unsustainable in the eyes of law”. Accordingly, the judge directed OPSC to accept the DC submitted by the petitioner and further process his candidature keeping in view his performance in the recruitment test as well as the merit list prepared by the commission for the posts advertised for OCS Examination, 2020.
Justice Mohapatra specified, “It is further made clear that in the event it is found that the petitioner is qualified and only on the ground of the dispute with regard to the DC he has not been given appointment to a post reserved for ex-servicemen category, on the recommendation of the OPSC, the government shall give him appointment by reckoning his seniority from the date of his batchmates. However, the petitioner shall not claim any salary or financial benefits for the aforesaid period”.