In a major setback to the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC), the Orissa High Court on Friday directed the commission to prepare a fresh merit list of the candidates taking their aggregate marks in the written examination held last year into consideration for recruitment to the posts of Assistant Section Officer (ASO) under the Home Department of the State Government.
The High Court also scrapped the earlier merit list prepared by the commission in which 1,104 candidates were shortlisted for the skill test and viva voce for recruitment of 796 posts of ASO. The Bench of Justice Aditya Kumar Mohapatra also ordered the commission to prepare a fresh list of candidates within two months on the basis of the combined marks they have secured in the written examination,
informed senior advocate Manoj Kumar Mishra, who was arguing the case for some aggrieved aspirants.
Notably, the High Court in an interim order passed in December last year had asked the OPSC to continue the recruitment process of the ASOs as per the schedule but had refrained the commission from publishing any final list without the leave of the High Court.
Speaking to this Correspondent, senior advocate Mishra said that in his argument before the court, he had pointed out as to how the commission had exceeded its jurisdiction in the recruitment
process and how the Odisha Secretariat Services (Method of Recruitment) and Conditions of Service of ASO Rules-2016 were violated by the commission in fixing subject-wise cutoff marks after the examination process had begun.