High Court slaps stay on SAT order on OCS appointment

The Orissa High Court today slapped an interim stay on the State Administrative Tribunal order nullifying the appointment of 378 Odisha civil service officials in 2010.
The SAT had in April this year nullified the appointment of the officials who were given appointments in 2010 on the basis of an Odisha Public Service Commission advertisement published in 2006.
The Tribunal had objected to the appointments on the ground that all the 378 candidates were selected on the basis of a common entrance test but 280 of them were appointed as Class I officials while remaining 98 were absorbed as Class II officials.

Challenging the SAT order, at least 55 officers had moved the High Court claiming their recruitment was legal as during the run-up to the recruitment, which took over four years, the cadres of OAS and OFS officers had changed to Class I from Class II.
Stating that they should not be deprived of their genuine claim, the petitioners have urged the High Court to quash the order of the SAT.
Admitting the petitions, a division bench of the vacation court, comprising Justices B K Naik and A K Rath, ordered an interim stay on the operation of the SAT order and issued notices to the state government, OPSC and all the petitioners who had moved the SAT.

The Court fixed June 25 for further hearing of the case.
On the basis of the OPSC advertisement, 73 OAS (class-I), 207 OFS (class-I) and 98 officers in other allied cadre were given appointment as class-II officers by the state government in June 2010.