OPSC sees no wrong in ASO selection process

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the two month deadline given by the Orissa High Court to the State government for taking decision on the matter of granting promotion of Assistant Section Officers (ASO) to the post of Section Officers (SO) is over, the Home department is yet to a take a call on illegal appointment of some candidates in the cadre of Odisha Secretariat Service.

The Home department is in a quandary after the OPSC justified the selection of candidates who had completed their graduation as on September 27, 2014, the last date for application for eligible candidates for the post as per the corrigendum to the original advertisement on October 6, 2012. “The department is exploring ways how to deal with the situation since an internal inquiry revealed that appointment of around 175 ASOs is illegal as they do not conform to the eligibility criteria fixed for selection,” sources said.

The department is now in a sticky wicket as a number of petitions have been filed in the High Court by candidates who could not make it due to irregularities in the selection process, seeking direction from the court to quash the appointment of those ASOs who did not have the eligibility criteria in the year of recruitment. In response to the allegations of petitioners who moved the High Court challenging the gradation list for promotion on the grounds that selection of some of the ASOs is illegal as they were not eligible to apply, the OPSC in a communication to the Home department submitted that “those who had requisite qualification which is graduation as on the last date of the last corrigendum to the advertisement i.e. till 27.09 2014 could apply.

Thus, they were eligible to compete and some of them might have been selected.” However, the fact remains that the corrigendum notice issued on August 21, 2014 had clearly mentioned that candidates who are eligible as per the terms of the original advertisement of 2012-13 can apply. Responding to the Home department request for a detailed report on the selection of ASOs, the OPSC said that every document associated with the recruitment of ASO, consequent upon advertisement of 2012-13 and subsequent corrigendum to that advertisement has been sent to government (Home department) on September 17, 2016.

“Being the appointing authority of employees in secretariat service, it is the responsibility of the Home department to verify the documents of candidates before handing over appointment letters. The onus now rests on the department for any lapses,” official sources said.