CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court’s restriction on declaration of the final merit list by the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) for recruitment of assistant section officers (ASOs) in Group B posts in the Odisha Secretariat Service has been extended to January 19, 2023.
The high court had imposed the restriction while taking up a writ petition challenging the introduction of the procedure for shortlisting of the candidates on the ground that it is contrary to the provisions of the Odisha Secretariat Service (Method of Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2016.
In an interim order on December 2, the HC had said, “It is directed that the process of selection for the post of ASO may continue as per schedule, however, no final merit list shall be published/notified till the next date.”
The single judge bench of Justice AK Mohapatra extended the interim order till the next date (January 19) on Tuesday after the state government and OPSC filed their counter affidavits in response to notices issued by the high court.
Rajat Kumar Mishra and four others filed the petition contending that introduction of cut-off marks for different subjects by OPSC, for which it was not within its scope and jurisdiction. The petitioners had moved the high court after not finding their names among the shortlisted candidates notified by the OPSC on November 7, 2022.
However, in a counter affidavit deputy secretary of Law department Subrat Kumar Panda said, “OPSC has the competence to prescribe cut off marks in all or four subjects. It cannot be questioned under judicial review of the high court on facts and circumstances.”
In another counter affidavit additional secretary OPSC Nigamananda Panda said qualifying marks cannot be fixed in the advertisement, prior to the written test.He said 1,48, 888 candidates appeared the written examination. Of them 2,408 candidates secured the requisite qualifying marks in each subject. Out of 2408 candidates, 1,104 candidates were provisionally shortlisted on the basis of aggregate for document verification and skill test which was approximately 1.5 times of the 796 vacancies advertised.