CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Monday rejected two petitions for review and recall of its order that had quashed the merit list prepared by Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) for recruitment of 796 assistant section officers (ASOs) in Group B posts of Odisha Secretariat Service.
While issuing the quashing order on May 19, the high court had also directed OPSC to prepare a fresh merit list adhering to the Odisha Secretariat Service (Method of Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2016 and notify it within two months.
A review petition was filed against the said order by Kabita Jena and four others while Ruksana Ara Begum and four others had filed a petition for its recall. All the petitioners in the two cases were among those shortlisted in OPSC’s merit list notified on November 7, 2022.
Sources said, the petitions were filed on the ground that the May 19 order was passed without including the candidates, who were in the merit list as parties in the case. However, the single judge bench of Justice AK Mohapatra rejected both petitions on the ground of lack of merit.
The written examination was conducted by OPSC on August 27, 2022. While 1,48,888 candidates appeared the examination, the OPSC notified a merit list selecting 1,104 candidates for document verification and skill test which was approximately 1.5 times of the 796 vacancies advertised.
The May 19 judgment had come on a petition filed by Rajat Kumar Mishra and four others who were not among the shortlisted candidates challenging the introduction of cut-off marks for different subjects for preparing merit list after the written examination.
The high court had ruled that OPSC had no authority to fix the minimum qualifying mark subjectwise after the written test was over. “It appears that the OPSC has acted mechanically without verifying the rules,” the high court had observed.