HC quashes SAT order, allows challengers to appear at exams
The written test of Odisha Civil Services (OCS)-2011 (Main) examinations, as scheduled earlier, shall begin from Saturday and continue till September 30.
The uncertainty over the scheduled examination was removed on Wednesday when the Odisha High Court quashed the August 28 State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) ruling on it; giving a much-needed relief to around 5,823 OCS aspirants, who had cleared the Prelims..
A Division bench of the High Court comprising Justices Pradeep K Mohanty and Biswajit Mohanty allowed the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) to go ahead with the scheduled Main examination without re-evaluating the preliminary examination papers or preparing any fresh merit list as directed by the Tribunal.
The High Court also allowed those eight unsuccessful aspirants — who had challenged the preliminary results — to appear the main examinations along with the successful aspirants. “But their answer sheets shall not be evaluated without the leave of this Court”, the division bench said.
These eight aspirants shall appear before the OPSC secretary by 4 pm on Thursday and fill up the necessary documents so as to obtain their admit cards for the written test of the Main examination, informed the OPSC counsel Pradeepta Kumar Mohanty.
It may be recalled here that one Priyambada Das of Rourkela and seven others had approached the SAT challenging the Prelims results alleging that some aspirants were awarded grace marks arbitrarily affecting the prospects of many meritorious aspirants.
Viewing the allegations to be serious in nature, the SAT had directed the OPSC to evaluate the prelim papers again and prepare a fresh merit list within two months by awarding pro rata grace marks.
The SAT directive had cast a shadow of uncertainty over the scheduled Main examination even as the OPSC had made all arrangements for it by issuing admit cards to all the 5823 aspirants, who had successfully cleared the preliminary examination.
Around 50,000 candidates had wished to appear the OCS examination, the advertisement for which was made in October 2011 after a gap of five years. After many hiccups, the preliminary examination was held in January this year, in which only a little over 36,000 appeared and the results were announced in May.