CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has termed Odisha Public Service Commission’s (OPSC) rejection of candidature of an applicant as “illegal”, while validating NIOS Odia certificate for appearing in OPSC exams. The candidature of the applicant for the post of Assistant Public Prosecutor (Group-B) in the Odisha State Prosecution Service was rejected on the ground of not having valid Odia certificate.
Sanjeev Kumar Sahu, a high court lawyer who had applied for the post had taken the single subject examination under National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and got a single Odia certificate in 2018 as he had passed the CBSE examination with Hindi as a subject in Class-X exam.
According to OPSC prescribed norms, a candidate applying for the post has to pass either the Middle School standard language test in Odia or the Class-X examination conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, Odisha or any other equivalent board with Odia as a subject.
Sahu had filed a petition as he was allowed to take the written examination but his candidature was rejected on the ground of not having valid Odia certificate after he qualified in the written examination.
Initially, on October 15, the court had admitted the petition and ordered, “As an interim measure, it is directed that one post shall be kept vacant till the next date.”
While disposing the petition on November 1, the Single Judge Bench of Justice Biraja Prasanna Satapathy directed OPSC to allow the petitioner (Sanjeev Kumar Sahu) to take the viva-voce test by the same board which had earlier conducted viva-voce of other successful candidates.