Cuttack, Jan. 23: The state government has sought time from Orissa High Court till January 28 to submit a report on remedial measures that could be taken regarding the alleged illegal appointment in the municipal corporation.

Taking note of it, the division bench of Chief Justice Amitava Roy and Justice A.K. Rath yesterday posted the PIL on the job scam to January 28 for hearing along with the report.

The high court had, on April 3 last year, directed the principal secretary of the state urban development department to inquire into the nearly 11-year-old alleged scam and submit a report within eight weeks.

The scandal had surfaced in June 2003 when the civic administration detected at least 144 employees drawing salaries since 1998 without any valid appointment.

In the same year, Pradip Sahu, a city-based journalist, had filed a PIL seeking investigation by an independent agency, preferably the CBI on thecivic body's illegal appointment scandal.

Some of the persons, who had allegedly joined the service fraudulently, submitted that the high court had no jurisdiction to go into matter in a PIL. However, the high court had refused to accept the submission. 'The issue raised does not relate to service conditions, but fraudulent exercise of public authority in violation of the rule of law,' the court had observed.

But, when petition came up for hearing on January 19, the report had not been filed. Expressing dissatisfaction, the court had expected submission of report by today.

'From the stand of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation, it is clear that steps are required to be taken against the persons responsible for the illegalities and further remedial steps of removing the persons appointed illegally, may also be required,' the court had observed.

In its counter to the PIL, the municipal corporation had conceded that the alleged appointments had been made without prior approval of the government. There was no communication to the government before the appointment of such a large number of employees. There was no council resolution available for formation of selection committee. Official papers in original related to those appointments are not available in the office.

Of the 144 persons, one is now dead and two have been terminated. From among the remaining, as many as 141,11 are teachers, three helpers and one is law moharir, who without any prior government approval and sanctioned posts, are continuing. However, in respect of nine teachers, though there was no government approval and sanction, they were given continuance of service pursuant to a council resolution on March 27, 1999.

But, in respect of other 132 employees, mostly in the categories in Class IV grade, out of 141, there is neither any valid selection nor any valid appointment, the civic body said.