Cuttack: Odisha high court has put on hold operation of a revised seniority list of Odisha Administrative Service (OAS) Group-A (junior branch) officers, granting interim relief to a batch of direct recruits who contend they were unfairly pushed below promotees despite having participated in the 2011 recruitment process.A division bench of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice M S Raman, while hearing appeals against a May 5, 2026, HC single judge’s order, restrained the state from giving effect to the impugned gradation list dated Nov 15, 2021, until further orders, observing that the appellants had established a prima facie case.“We thus find a prima facie case has been made out for an interim protection and, we therefore, restrain the authorities not to give effect to or further effect to the gradation list finalised and/or published in terms of the impugned order,” the division bench said in its July 1 order.The controversy centres on fixation of inter se seniority between direct recruits and promotees in the OAS Group-A (JB) cadre. The appellants were selected through the Odisha Civil Services Examination advertised on Nov 17, 2011. However, litigation stalled the recruitment process, resulting in their appointments being made only in 2016. During the intervening period, officers promoted against vacancies of subsequent years entered the cadre in 2015.The court noted that the original draft gradation list had placed the direct recruits above the promotees by treating them as belonging to the 2011 recruitment year. After objections, however, the final gradation list was revised on Nov 15, 2021, placing the promotees above the direct recruits on the basis of their earlier date of appointment. Flagging the core legal issue, the bench observed, “The issue … is to interpret the expression ‘recruitment year’ and to place the officers in the gradation list when they are born in the cadre.”It said the appeals raise the question whether direct recruits, whose appointments were delayed for reasons beyond their control, should be treated as having entered the cadre in the recruitment year of 2011 or only from the date of their actual appointment in 2016.The bench also clarified that any action already taken on the basis of the revised gradation list “shall be subject to the result of the instant appeals”. The appeals have been listed for further hearing on Aug 17.
