SRIKANT PANDA Vs. STATE OF ODISHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Both these writ petitions are by the same Petitioner and arise out of a common set of facts and are accordingly being disposed of by this common judgment. W.P. (C) No. 2757 of 2017

(2.) The Petitioner states that he was awarded Ph.D. in Physics in the year 2012 and has also done his B. Ed. apart from acquiring certain other qualifications. Advertisement No.001 of 2015 was issued by the State Selection Board (SSB), Department of Higher Education, Bhubaneswar, for filling up the posts of Lecturers in Non-Government Aided Colleges of Odisha. There were a total of 1625 vacancies in different disciplines. Among the eligibility criteria was the age limit. It was specified that candidates of general category should not be less than 21 years or more than 42 years as on 1/10/2015. The relaxation of the upper age limit was applicable only to candidates belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC), Women and Ex-Servicemen. For persons with disability (PwD), the age limit was relaxable by 10 years provided that the disability was not less than 40%.

(3.) 100 posts of Lecturers in physics was on offer. The Petitioner applied for the post of Lecturer in Physics. However, he did not qualify in the main merit list published. As per the counter affidavit filed by the Opposite Parties, his name figured at Sl. No.45 after the merit list in the UR category. The SEBC candidates who topped in the list qualified in the UR category.