Recruitment Process for Assistant Professors Challenged- HC Issues Notice to Cancer Institute's Director
Orissa High Court
Cuttack: While considering the plea challenging the recruitment process for 17 Assistant Professor posts in six superspecialty disciplines at the institute, the Orissa High Court has issued notice to the Director of Acharya Harihar Post Graduate Institute of Cancer (AHPGIC), Cuttack.
Even though the HC Bench comprising Justice Aditya Kumar Mohapatra has given a go-ahead with the recruitment process, it has restrained the authorities from finalising any appointments without the Court's permission.
The matter has been listed for further hearing in the week commencing August 4.
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As per the latest media report by the Times of India, an Assistant Professor in the department of TB at MKCG Medical College and Hospital, along with four others, challenged the advertisement issued by the institute on May 28 for recruitment to 17 Assistant Professor posts.
The concerned advertisement proposed to select Assistant Professors solely based on marks, giving 40% weightage on MBBS marks for the candidates who completed their post-graduation before 2016-2017, and 20% marks from PG.
However, Clause 4 of the Odisha Medical Education Service Rules states that recruitment to the post of Assistant Professor in Superspecialty disciplines must be conducted through a written examination.
Filing the plea, the petitioners alleged that the selection process outlined in the advertisement violated the Odisha Medical Education Service (Method of Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2021, and the institute's by-laws.
The counsel for the petitioners, Advocate Jitendra Kumar Lenka argued that the appointments were made while violating the statutory recruitment rules nd therefore such appointments were "null and void from the beginning", as consistently held by the Supreme Court.
With this argument, Advocate Lenka sought quashing of the advertisement and prayed to the Court to issue directions for issuing a fresh advertisement in line with statutory rules and bye-laws of AHPGIC.
After taking note of the submissions, the HC bench comprising Justice Mohapatra issued notice to the AHPGIC Director and asked to file a reply within two weeks and granted two weeks of time thereafter for any rejoinder by the petitioner.
