In a significant ruling, the Orissa High Court on Friday turned down the quashing order of the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) pertaining to the recruitment of various teaching faculties in the Government-run medical colleges of the State. A Division Bench comprising Justices Indrajit Mahanti and Biswnath Rath held the appointments of 38 faculty positions made by the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) in 2013 as “valid”. The High Court also directed that the candidates shortlisted in the ad hoc list would be given priority while filling up the remaining vacancies of the medical colleges. It may be mentioned here that the OPSC had come out with two advertisements in August 2010 and December 2011 to fill up over 300 faculty positions at the SCB Medical College in Cuttack, MKCG Medical College at Brahmapur and the VSS Medical College in Burla.
Subsequently, the recruitment processes began after which the Government filled up 38 positions in different medical colleges and giving appointments to over 100 teachers in ad hoc basis. However, this recruitment was annulled by the Tribunal when some candidates alleged that the recruitment was done in an arbitrary manner.