Orissa High Court
Sanjaya Kumar Rout vs State Of Odisha & Ors on 15 September, 2023
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
// 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
// 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
// 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
// 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
// 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
// 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
