Team Herald
PANJIM: The Supreme Court declined to grant any relief to the 32 appointees of the post of Assistant Data Entry Operator (ADEO) in the State Electricity Department, whose appointments have been quashed by the High Court of Bombay at Goa.
The appointees had challenged the High Court order before the Apex Court, which the Court dismissed off on January 29. With this, the order passed by the High Court stands upheld.
The High Court had in December 2020, quashed the appointments taking cognisance of a petition challenging the sudden change in selection criterion post-declaration of exam results.
Sources informed that following the Supreme Court order, the State Electricity Department has issued service termination letters to the 32 candidates, who were allowed to continue in service by the High Court till January 31, 2021.
A group of individuals, in 2016, had approached the High Court challenging the selection and appointments of around 56 “selected and appointed” candidates and sought from the Court appropriate order to strike down the results. The petitioners had also sought appropriate writ to direct the State government to appoint the petitioners to the posts of ADEO with retrospective effect and with all consequential benefits.
The Division Bench had disposed of the petitions by quashing and setting aside the selection and appointments of 32 respondents to the posts of ADEOs.
As directed by the High Court, the Supreme Court too upheld the order that the exercise of preparation of select list and issuance of fresh appointment order must be completed by the State government and the Electricity Department by January 31, 2021 with fresh appointment orders effective from February 1, 2021.
The State and the Electricity Department were directed to prepare a select list of candidates falling within the ratio of 1:3 as provided in Clause (l) of the OM dated March 5, 2007 based on merit to be determined in the order of marks secured in the written test results declared on January 10, 2016 and the marks out of 15 allotted for the oral interview awarded by the DSC in this selection.
The department is also asked to issue appointment orders to the 32 most meritorious candidates based upon the select list to be made as aforesaid, subject no doubt to such candidates complying with usual requirements like medical examination, verification of character, etc.
