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High Court quashes VLW recruitment notification

CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Friday quashed a State Government notification issued in May this year for recruitment of around 600 positions of village level workers (VLW) as the notification had several anomalies. The court asked the government to come out with a fresh notification immediately rectifying the irregularities.

According to a PIL filed by one Sudhir Sahu and others of Balangir, the government notification inviting application for the posts was arbitrary and was violating the provisions of Recruitment and Training Rules of the State Government enacted in 1981. The petitioners said while the rules say that preference should be given to Plus II vocational candidates for the post of VLW, the government notification is completely silent on this.

Similarly, there had been no provision of age relaxation in the notification for the candidates as the recruitment for the same posts was banned in the State for last one decade, the petitioner said.

The petitioners pointed out that while the vocational courses were introduced in the state keeping an eye for these jobs, the May notification seeking applications from all the Plus II candidates in general is arbitrary.

Adjudicating over the petition, the High Court had issued notice to the State government asking it to file counter affidavit. The government in its counter had stated that since the posts would be filled on contractual basis, there was no need for setting preference for any category of candidates.

The Division Bench comprising Justice B P Das and Justice R N Biswal did not agree with the government’s contention. “How can the State Government violate its own set of Rules,” the Bench asked. “Be it contractual or regular, the government’s attempt to violate the rules is very confusing”, it observed.

Disposing of the petition, the court quashed the government’s notification and asked the state government to issue a fresh recruitment notification setting the eligibility criteria as per the rules laid down for the purpose.

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