Orissa HC Serves Notice to State Govt & OPRB on Recruitment Test for SI Posts

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court on Friday issued a notice to the Odisha government and the Odisha Police Recruitment Board (OPRB) after hearing a petition filed by one Subash Senapati seeking cancellation of final merit list of selected candidates for police Sub-Inspector posts.

According to the petitioner the OPRB through an advertisement on June 22, 2021, sought applications for recruitment to SI posts. The Board announced to conduct of written tests on two papers in two sittings in different districts of the state on November 26, 2023 as part of this recruitment process.

During the first sitting at the examination centre in Women’s College, Khurda, the candidates were given question paper II instead of paper I, by mistake. The mistake was realized after 20 minutes and the officials conducting the examination took back the question papers from the candidates. The candidates were made to wait till second sitting and were given paper II again.

The written tests were conducted smoothly in all other centres in the state. The candidates for this Khurda centre were asked to appear at the test for Paper I on December 10, 2023.

The petitioner alleged that instead of cancelling the examination of paper I and holding the test again in all centres, the OPRB announced the written test results on December 21 and also published the final merit list on December 31, 2023.

He also added that at the time of announcing the written test results the OPRB declared the cut-off mark for the selected candidates was 185. But in the final merit list, the cut-off mark was revised to 172, the petitioner said.

Citing these irregularities, the petitioner prayed the High Court to cancel the entire selection process for SI posts. The Orissa High Court has set next date hearing for the case on January 29.