Cuttack: The Orissa high court on Monday reserved judgment on petitions challenging two orders of a single bench regarding the recruitment of 796 ASOs in Group B posts in Odisha Secretariat Service. While one order had quashed the merit list declared by Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) for recruitment of ASOs on May 19, the other had confirmed the order while rejecting a review petition on July 31.Kabita Jena and Satyabrata Nayak who were among those shortlisted in OPSC’s merit list notified on November 7, 2022, had filed two separate petitions.The two-judge bench of acting Chief Justice B R Sarangi and Justice M S Raman heard the submissions of all concerned parties including state government, OPSC and petitioners. Earlier, a two-judge bench had suspended the two orders of the single bench. “Both the judgments shall remain suspended till disposal of the writ appeal,” the interim order issued on August 9 read.The written examination was conducted by OPSC on August 27, 2022. While 1,48, 888 candidates had appeared in the OPSC exam on November 7, 2022, it notified a merit list selecting 1,104 candidates for document verification and skill test, which was approximately 1.5 times the 796 vacancies advertised.The May 19 judgment had come on a petition filed by Rajat Kumar Mishra and four others — who were not among the shortlisted candidates — challenging the introduction of cut-off marks for different subjects.In the judgment, Justice A K Mohapatra had directed OPSC to prepare a fresh merit on the basis of aggregate marks secured by the candidates and notify it within two months. Subsequently, two petitions were filed for review and recall of the May 19 order on the ground that it was passed without including the candidates, who were in the merit list, as parties in the case. But Justice A K Mohapatra rejected them on grounds of merit on July 31.We also published the following articles recentlyJudges' appointment case not listed despite judicial orderWWE's Judgment Day teases shocking recruitment and title Swap: What is the potential?TOI+ Market Watch: Why Paytm stocks had their biggest drop since listing