Orissa High Court asks state government to take lawful action on ASO promotion

BHUBANESWAR:  The Orissa High Court has directed the State government to take lawful decision on the matter of granting promotion of Assistant Section Officers (ASO) to the post of Section Officers (SO).

The High Court order was in response to a joint petition filed by some ASOs requesting to quash the gradation list of 831 ASOs published by the Home department on December 14, 2020 for giving promotion to SO in the Odisha Secretariat Service cadre.

While disposing of the writ petitions filed by Sudhir Kumar Swain and seven other ASOs, Justice Biswanath Rath has directed the Home department to consider the representation of the petitioners and take lawful decision in the matter taking into account the grounds stated in the petition.

“The entire exercise shall be completed within a period of two months from the date of communication of a copy of this order by the petitioners,” said the HC order.

After publication of the gradation list, the Home department requested departments concerned to furnish confidential character rolls/performance appraisal reports of these Group-3 officers from 2014-15 to 2018-19 to enable it to give them promotion for the calendar year 2021.

The petitioners challenged the gradation list on the grounds that some candidates, those who were not eligible for the post, were erroneously selected and given appointment.

Meanwhile, the department has sought a detailed report from the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) for conducting an inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the selection.

Describing this to be matter of grave concern, a senior officer of the Secretariat dealing with service matters told TNIE that it has become evident that OPSC is yet to develop a software to detect deficiency in the applications of the candidates.

“How candidates having no requisite qualifications were selected for written and computer test required for the post of ASO is baffling,” the officer wondered.

What is more galling that ineligible candidates were handed over appointment order by the Home department without verifying their qualifications.

The appointing authority is duty bound to verify original educational and other requisite certificates before issuing appointment letters.

If the selection process is wrong, this may lead to serious consequences, the sources warned. After recruitment process is over, OPSC used to send all the documents of the candidates along with the select list to the appointing authority. It is for the authority to decide on the merit list.