Orissa High Court
Sanjaya Kumar Rout vs State Of Odisha & Ors. .... Opposite ... on 15 September, 2023
Author: S.K. Panigrahi
Bench: S.K. Panigrahi
IN THE HIGH COURT OF ORISSA AT CUTTACK
W.P.(C) No.18758 of 2022
Sanjaya Kumar Rout .... Petitioner
Mr. P.K. Mohapatra, Adv.
-versus-
State of Odisha & Ors. .... Opposite Parties
Mr. G.R. Mohapatra, ASC
CORAM:
DR. JUSTICE S.K. PANIGRAHI
ORDER
Order 15.09.2023
No.
11. 1. This matter is taken up through hybrid
arrangement.
2. Heard learned counsel for the Parties.
3. The main thrust of challenge of the Petitioner in this Writ Petition is against the impugned order dated 13.05.2022 vide Annexure-14.
4. The factual scenario of this case in brevity remains; the Petitioner having B.A. B.Ed and O.T.E.T. qualification, applied for the post of "Sikshya Sahayak"
pursuant to the advertisement dated 11.09.2014 under T.G.T (Arts) in unreserved category in respect of Dhenkanal district as first preference district. In the said Page 1 of 7 // 2 // advertisement, the maximum age limit was reduced from 42 years to 32 years. Though the age limit was reduced, the Petitioner by virtue of the order dated 2.03.2015 passed in W.P.(C) No.18757 of 2014 by this Court approached the authority and his candidature was, accordingly, accepted. Thereafter, the Petitioner was selected and placed at Sl.No.12 in unreserved category in respect of +3 (Arts) B.Ed. The name of the Petitioner was, accordingly, submitted before the OPEPA and the Collector, Dhenkanal vide order dated 03.09.2015 issued the engagement order in favour of the Petitioner along with six others. But, all of a sudden, the engagement order was cancelled on the ground that the 3rd preference selection for recruitment of "Sikshya Sahayak" is in progress and the candidates of 1st preference cannot be considered at present in the vacancies arising out of resignation or disengagement of "Sikshya Sahayak".
After cancellation of the engagement, similarly situated overaged candidates were given engagement in the said Dhenkanal district and even one Harihar Panda placed at Sl.No.6 has been given engagement vide order dated 23.09.2016. The case of the present Petitioner, who was at Sl.No.7, has not been considered against the existing Page 2 of 7 // 3 // vacancies in respect of the Dhenkanal district, despite his repeated approaches to the authority.
5. Finding no alternative, the Petitioner being an overaged candidate approached the Collector-cum-Chief Executive Officer, Zilla Parishad, Dhenkanal for engaging him as a "Sikshya Sahayak". Thereafter, the Petitioner approached this Court vide W.P.(C) No.18152 of 2016, which was disposed of with a direction to the Collector- cum-Chief Executive Officer, Zilla Parishad to dispose of the representation of the Petitioner within a period of one month. Pursuant to the direction of the Court, instead of considering the case of the Petitioner, the Collector, Dhenkanal vide its letter dated 27.12.2017 sought for clarification from the State Project Director, OPEPA, Bhubaneswar regarding recruitment of Sikshya Sahayak in respect of Dhenkanal Revenue District for the year 2014-15.
6. Pursuant to such query, the State Project Director, OPEPA vide letters dated 09.03.2018 and 16.04.2018 sought for clarification from the Special Secretary, School & Mass Education Department; whether the candidature of the Petitioner can be considered for the recruitment as "Sikshya Sahayak" in the year 2014-15, as four candidates Page 3 of 7 // 4 // from the same waiting list had already been considered. At this juncture, it is averred in paragraph no.6 of the counter filed in W.P.(C) No.18152 of 2016 that one post meant for B.A, B.Ed. in unreserved category is still lying vacant after completion of "Sikshya Sahayak"
recruitment for the year 2014-15, when claim of four candidates were considered by the Collector, Dhenkanal and one Harihar Panda was given engagement after 02.06.2016 by the Collector without any clarification from the Authority and the case of the Petitioner has been considered in a different way.
7. Further, finding no alternative way, the Petitioner approached this Court vide W.P.(C) No.2151 of 2019 and the said Writ Petition was disposed of directing the Opposite Party No.3 to consider the representation at the instance of the Petitioner taking into consideration the judgment dated 23.12.2020 in W.A. No.701 of 2019 in the case of Babita Satpathy Vrs. State of Odisha. It appears, the Collector-cum-Chairman, Samagra Sikshya, Dhenkanal without following the ratio decided in W.A. No.701/2019 along with batch of cases vide its order dated 13.05.2022 rejected the case of the Petitioner on the ground that the judgment rendered in the case of Babita Page 4 of 7 // 5 // Satapathy (supra) has not yet attained finality, as the same is under judicial review of the Court. Hence, this Writ Petition.
8. In his challenge to the impugned order, learned counsel for the Petitioner submits that pursuant to the order dated 02.03.2015 passed in W.P.(C) No.18757 of 2014 along with batch of cases, the Opposite Parties extended the upper age limit as 42 years and accordingly, the overaged candidates were given appointment in different districts pursuant to the said advertisement also.
9. It is submitted by the learned counsel for the Petitioner that though the Petitioner after fulfilling all the criteria was placed in the waiting list, all the candidates except the present Petitioner were given engagement. Learned counsel for the Petitioner, accordingly, seeks a direction from this Court to the Opposite Parties for appointing the Petitioner as a "Sikshya Sahayak".
10. In opposing the stand of the learned counsel for the Petitioner, learned counsel for the State while reiterating the facts, prays for a suitable direction from this Court.
11. Considering the submissions made by the parties, this Court finds, in order to implement the order of the Page 5 of 7 // 6 // Court, names of other candidates along with present Petitioner were placed in the final merit list and were recommended for engagement as "Sikshya Sahayak"
under B.A. B.Ed. category. The said list from the order dated 3rd September, 2015 at Annexure-4 (series) is extracted herein below.
Position as
% of
Sl. Name of the waiting per Final
Category marks
No. candidates Merit List
secured
2014-15
1 Saroj Kumar Das SEBC 153.5167 UR-4
2 Alekh Prasad Behera OBC 149.7143 UR-5
Fakira Charan
3 SEBC 149.1547 UR-6
Khuntia
4 Satyabrata Pradhan SEBC 146.9233 UR-7
5 Baidyanath Sahoo SEBC 146.2071 UR-8
6 Harihar Panda GEN 136.0119 UR-10
7 Sanjay Kumar Rout SEBC 129.8115 UR-12
12. In the aforesaid selection list Petitioner's name was put in Sl.No.07. It appears, all the six candidates except the present Petitioner were given appointment. This action of the District Project Office, Sarva Sikshya Abhiyan, Dhenkanal smacks arbitrariness and hits the root of Article 14 and Article 16 of the Constitution of India. In the process, while setting aside the impugned order dated 13.05.2022 vide Annexure-14, this Court directs that the Writ Petitioner should be given with Page 6 of 7 // 7 // appointment as "Sikshya Sahayak" by the District Project Office, Sarva Sikshya Abhiyan, Dhenkanal, if the posts are lying vacant.
13. The entire exercise shall be completed within a period of one month from the date of production of a copy of this order by the Petitioner.
14. Writ Petition stands disposed of with the above order.
(Dr. S.K. Panigrahi) Judge Ayaskanta Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed Signed by: AYASKANTA JENA Designation: Senior Stenographer Reason: Authentication Location: High Court of Orissa Date: 21-Sep-2023 14:00:02 Page 7 of 7