Cuttack, June 22: The central bench of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) today quashed the list of nine officers of the Orissa Administrative Service (OAS) recommended by the state government to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for selection to fill up the two Indian Administrative Service (IAS) vacancies in the Non-State Civil Service Officers’ cadre.

Earlier, in November 2010, the CAT bench had stayed the process of selection on a petition filed by Niranjan Sethi, who was working as deputy director in information and public relations (I and PR) department.

Consequently, results of the selection had not been declared, even interviews were conducted on November 9, 2010.

“The CAT bench, constituting of member (administration) C.R. Mohapatra and member (judiciary) A.K. Pattanayak, today set aside the list recommended by the state government and the selection process undertaken so far by the UPSC,” petitioner counsel, Ganeswar Rath, told The Telegraph.

“The CAT bench directed the state government to recommend the name of Niranjan Sethi, along with the names of the nine other OAS officers and the UPSC to consider them afresh for selection for the two IAS posts. The bench expected the process to be completed within 90 days,” Rath said.

Sethi had, in his petition, alleged that he was initially short-listed among the ten candidates by the state government.

However, his name was dropped later and nine candidates were recommended and their interviews were conducted.

His name was purportedly dropped on the ground of investigation by vigilance department.

“The CAT bench, however, ruled that since no proceeding had been initiated non -inclusion of his name (Niranjan Sethi) is illegal,” Rath said.