The court affirmed the validity of prescribed qualifications for recruitment, emphasizing legislative authority and restricted judicial review in educational matters.

JUDGMENT :

MRUGANKA SEKHAR SAHOO, J.

1. The subject matter of the writ petition is challenge to advertisement dated 02.11.2022 issued by the Odisha Staff Selection Commission-opposite party no.2(OSSC- O.P. No.2) for recruitment to the post of Assistant Training officer (ATO) in Government Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) under Combined Technical Services Recruitment Examination for Group-B posts/services, for various Departments of Govt. of Odisha. The last date of online application was 10.12.2022. At Sl. No.7 of the advertisement for recruitment is the impugned recruitment for the post of ATO indicated, as per the following details:

2. All the petitioners have stated to be working as Part Time Guest Instructors (PTGIs) in the Government ITIs. They have further stated that they have completed more than fifteen years of service and their case for regularization against the existing vacancies was not considered by the Government. They had approached the Odisha Administrative Tribunal (since abolished) for a direction for regularization against the existing regular vacancies almost 10 years earlier to filing of the writ petition, i.e. in the year around 2012.

3. The further fact not in dispute is that the Government of Odisha in the Department of Skill Development and Technical Education vide circular dated 23.06.2016 notified and circulated the ‘Amendment of Guidelines, terms & conditions to be followed for recruitment of contractual ATOs for ITIs. By the said notification, the Government approved the revised draft guidelines, terms and conditions for advertisement and recruitment of regular/contractual ATOs in various ITIs and Skill Development Centres (SDCs) as submitted by the Director, Technical Education and Training, Odisha.

4. The said notification dated 23.06.2016 has provided in Paragraph-2 ten years age relaxation to PTGIs, who are already working in different Government ITIs. Obviously the petitioners-PTGIs are not aggrieved by grant of such relaxation, but they are aggrieved by the qualification and experience prescribed in the notification dated 23.06.2016 required for competing in the selection process for ATOs. Clause-3 of the notification dated 23.06.2016 (supra) provides the required qualification and experience for participating in the selection process of ATOs; Paragraph-4(c)(iii) provides mandatory teaching experience.

5. The challenge in the writ petition is mainly against the condition that the participants intending to participate in the selection process for ATOs should have CITS qualification. CITS stands for Craft Instructors Training Scheme (CITS) qualification, under the aegis of National Council of Vocational Training (NCVT), New Delhi. The requirement of CITS qualification, which has been taken exception to by the petitioners and is challenged is mentioned at paragraph-4.B of advertisement and is reproduced herein :

“4.B. The Career Assessment :

i. 60% weightage fixed for marks secured in relevant technical qualifications i.e. Degree/Diploma or CTS out of 60 marks.

ii. 30% weightage fixed for marks secured in Craft Instructors Training Scheme (CITS) qualification under the aegis of NCVT, New Delhi to ensure that CITS passed candidates are engaged as Instructors out of 30 marks.

(N.B: Career assessment is based on guidelines of GoI/MoSDE vide letter No.19/03(08)/2015-CD dated 07.01.2016).”

6. It is further indica