2006 Odisha Civil Services row: Appointment of 378 officers declared valid

Cuttack, Oct 26: In a significant ruling, the Orissa High Court on Tuesday declared the appointment of 378 OCS officers 'valid' as it quashed the decision of the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT). The Cuttack bench of the SAT had quashed the appointments of as many as 378 Odisha Civil Service (OCS) officials. On the basis of an Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) advertisements of 2006, as many as 73 OAS (class-I), 207 OFS (class-I) and 98 officers in other allied cadres as class-II officers were given appointment by the state government in June 2010. Adjudicating over a batch of applications, the Tribunal had declared the appointments of these 378 officials as "illegal" and "void". The petitioners had challenged the appointments stating that the 2006-advertisement had invited applications from eligible candidates to fill up only class-II posts of different cadres having basic salary of Rs 6,500. But when appointments were made in 2010, some officers joined as class-I officers with basic salary of Rs 15,600 and others as class-II officers with starting salary of Rs 9,300. Refuting the petitioners' contentions, the state government had argued before the Tribunal stating there was no wrong in giving appointments to OAS and OFS officers as class-I cadre as during the runoff to recruitment, the cadres of OAS and OFS officers had changed from class-II to class-I.