The Orissa High Court has put a temporary halt on the recruitment process for 1,360 sepoy and constable posts in the Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) following an appeal by the Odisha government.
The recruitment was initiated based on an advertisement issued by the State Selection Board (Odisha Police) on August 29, 2024. However, the process faced legal challenges over the issue of upper age relaxation.
Court Grants Interim Stay
On Thursday, the High Court’s division bench, led by Acting Chief Justice Arindam Sinha and Justice M.S. Sahoo, imposed an interim stay after the state contested a December 5, 2024 order by a single-judge bench.
The earlier order had granted a one-time six-year relaxation in the upper age limit, allowing candidates who crossed the 23-year age cap to apply, citing COVID-19 pandemic-induced delays in recruitment as justification.
State’s Argument
Appearing for the state, Advocate General Pitambar Acharya argued that recruitment to the uniformed forces is not part of civil services, and the single-judge bench had wrongly directed the issuance of a corrigendum revising the recruitment advertisement.
Taking note of these submissions, the division bench stayed the recruitment process until the next hearing on March 20.
Pandemic-Era Age Relaxation at Dispute’s Core
The conflict centers around amendments made in 2022 to the Odisha Civil Service Rules, which raised the upper age limit from 32 to 38 years for recruitments advertised between 2021 and 2023 to offset pandemic-related delays.
However, this age relaxation was not extended to the 2024 IRB constable recruitment, triggering the legal challenge.
The case will now be heard further on March 20.
