Post-August 19, 2023 Gram Rozgar Sevak Ads Must Follow Amended Reservation Law: Orissa HC Modifies Earlier Ruling

In brief

The question

Whether the unconsidered 2023 amendment to the ORV Act warranted review of the 6 February 2025 judgment

The court held

The review applications were allowed. The Court modified the 6 February 2025 judgment by inserting paragraph 29-A and substituting paragraph 30.

It also directed

It held that the ORV Act’s amended reservation provisions do not apply to engagements before 19 August 2023; accordingly, the 6 April 2018 Guidelines, insofar as they applied those provisions to such engagements, and the 30 June 2018 advertisement for 19 vacancies could not be sustained. Advertisements issued on or after 19 August 2023 are governed by the law as amended

01Facts

The State sought review of the High Court’s judgment dated 6 February 2025 concerning the applicability of the Odisha Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Act, 1975 (“ORV Act”) to Gram Rozgar Sevak (GRS) engagements.

p. 2 · ¶ 1

The earlier judgment had interfered with the Comprehensive Guidelines dated 6 April 2018 insofar as they applied the ORV Act and its Rules to GRS engagements, and with consequential advertisements

p. 2 · ¶ 1

The State argued that the Court had not been apprised of the 2023 amendment to the ORV Act, effective from 19 August 2023, which extended reservation to specified tenure, contractual and schematic posts

p. 3 · ¶ 2 · p. 4 · ¶ 4

Advertisements had been issued by three districts before that date and by twenty-three districts afterwards

pp. 4, 6–7 · ¶ 4, 7

02Issues

i.Whether the unconsidered 2023 amendment to the ORV Act warranted review of the 6 February 2025 judgment

p. 3, 6 · ¶ 2, 6

ii.Whether the earlier judgment’s directions should be modified to distinguish advertisements issued before 19 August 2023 from those issued on or after that date

pp. 6–7 · ¶ 7

03Law Applied

Order XLVII Rule 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides the procedural basis invoked for review

p. 1

Section 3(2) of the ORV Act, inserted by the Odisha Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Amendment Act, 2023, extends reservation to appointments to tenure, contractual and schematic posts that are to be regularised against sanctioned posts

pp. 3, 7–8 · ¶ 2, 9

The amendment is deemed to have come into force on 19 August 2023; the Court treated it as prospective, so the amended reservation provision does not apply to engagements made before that date

p. 8 · ¶ 9

Provisions in the judgment · 2

Orissa Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Act, 1975 Section 3

Odisha Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Amendment Act, 2023 Section 1

04Reasoning

The amendment and the notification dated 7 November 2023 had not been brought to the Court’s attention when it decided the writ petitions, so the earlier judgment did not consider their effect

p. 6 · ¶ 6

Because Section 3(2) applies from 19 August 2023, advertisements issued after that date stand on a different statutory footing from earlier advertisements

pp. 6–7 · ¶ 7

The Court therefore found that the earlier general direction required modification: it could not sustain application of the ORV Act to pre-amendment engagements, but should not obstruct recruitment under advertisements issued after the amendment took effect

pp. 7–8 · ¶ 9