The Orissa High Court has refused to interfere in the recruitment process of the Odisha government, which had not prescribed reservation for SC and ST candidates for the selection of Assistant Professor in the Super-Specialty stream. Ruling on petitions filed by two candidates belonging to reserved categories, Orissa High Court Justice Biraja Prasanna Satpathy said the court did not find any illegality in the advertisement issued by the state government.
Odisha Public Service Commission had released an advertisement for the recruitment of the post of Assistant Professor (Super Specialty) in 2021. The advertisement was challenged by two candidates on the grounds that there was no mention of reservation in it. “As no reservation was provided for any candidate belonging to the reserved category and all the 19 posts advertised were for unreserved candidates, the selection process conducted by the Commission is vitiated,” the petitioners argued.
Justice Satpathy said, “Since in the context of the judgment given in the case of Preeti Srivastava and Indira Sawhney in the case of Faculty Association of AIIMS, no step has been taken by the State as to whether the reservation against recruitment to the post of Assistant Professor in Super Specialty can be followed or not, this Court is of the view that there is no illegality or irregularity committed by the opposite parties (Government and OPSC) while issuing the impugned advertisement. ” “Accordingly, this Court is not inclined to interfere with the recruitment process conducted by the Commission as per the advertisement. In the result, both the writ petitions fail and are accordingly dismissed.
” During the hearing, the government side argued that reservation is not applicable to the post of Assistant Professor in Super Specialty because it is not a base level post. The government counsel argued that as per the Medical Council of India norms, assistant professors in super specialties come under Level 12 and assistant professors in broad specialties come under Level 11.
“Since the pay scale of the post in the impugned advertisement is Level 12, the post (Assistant Professor) cannot be considered as a base level post or in the lowest rank compared to a teaching post,” the lawyers argued.