Orissa HC quashes Hindi teacher recruitment test, calls for fresh test in 3 months

Bhubaneswar, Oct 17 (UNI) The Orissa High Court has quashed the Hindi teacher recruitment test conducted by Odisha’s Staff Selection Commission on the grounds of non-adherence to the clauses of the advertised recruitment notification.

“How could such a grave error occur at the hands of the Commission, which plays a pivotal role in the matter of selection and employment to public service,” the court questioned.

Pulling up the Commission that recruits for Group-B and Group-C posts in the Odisha government for not following the prescribed procedure laid out in the recruitment notification, the single bench of High Court Justice Dixit Krishna Shripad ruled that “the selection process to the 711 posts of Hindi teachers, as has been done hitherto, is quashed, retaining its stage anterior to written main examination”.
The commission shall hold a preliminary exam in terms of the recruitment advertisement, so far as the posts of Hindi Teachers are concerned, within a period of three months, it said.

The aspirants for the job appeared for the written main exam held on May 15 last. The said examination was for 150 marks, of which 20 were earmarked for pedagogy and multiple answers. Questions from 21 to 150 related to the Hindi subject, and multiple answers were in Hindi only.
The recruitment notification specifically stated that should applications were more than five times the notified vacancies, a preliminary examination would be conducted.
As a matter of policy, a bilingual facility, namely, English (Roman script) & Hindi (Devanagari script), was to be made available to the aspiring candidates.
However, a preliminary exam was neither conducted nor was the bilingual facility provided, in violation of the recruitment notification. As a result, the job aspirants were denied the advantage of the English version of the questions.

The aspirants said had the ‘zone of consideration’ had been squeezed by eliminating unworthy applicants by holding preliminary examination, they would have stood a better chance of selection to the posts.

The recruitment notification held out to the public in general and aspiring candidates in particular that should applicants exceeded five times the notified vacancies, a preliminary examination would be conducted.

The court said dispensing with the preliminary exam was incompetent & prejudicial to the candidates like the petitioners, who were made to compete with all sundry. “It remains a mystery why the English version of Pedagogy & Evaluation Paper was not furnished”, the order pointed out.