Cuttack, March 28: Orissa High Court today ruled in favour of the continuance of Ravenshaw University’s East Hostel as a men’s hostel instead of converting it into a women’s hostel. The court, however, ordered for accommodating female students by vacating another hostel.

The university had decided to convert East Hostel into a women’s hostel to address the acute shortage of accommodation for female students. The decision had triggered a students’ agitation on the campus last year.

The protesters demanded a roll back in the decision to allot the hostel, after renovation, to female students and had kept the main gates of the university locked. They paralysed all academic activities from October 28. The strike was withdrawn on November 15 after the high court appointed a seven-member peace committee headed by Justice (retired) A.K. Parichha to resolve the dispute in response to two PILs.

The committee, which included two senior advocates, two educationists and two representatives of the university’s student union, had submitted its report on January 20. The court had reserved its judgment on February 1. “We direct the registrar of Ravenshaw University to allot East Hostel to the boys,” the two-judge bench of Chief Justice V. Gopala Gowda and Justice B.N. Mohapatra ordered while endorsing the recommendation of the peace committee that the East Hostel be allowed to continue as a gents hostel.

“We are happy that our demand over East Hostel has been treated as legitimate by the high court in its ruling,” said BSc final-year student Soubhagya Swain.

“All is well that ends well. There should be no further dispute as the court has also ordered for vacating a hostel for the girls,” said Girija Shankar Mallick, general secretary of the students’ union of Ravenshaw University.

“The hostel given to the private organisation be taken back for girls students,” the court further ordered, while endorsing the peace committee’s recommendation for directing the university administration to shift the self-financing management institute from West Hostel and renovating the vacated hostel for female students.

The court also directed the university to seek funds from the state government for the construction of two more hostels on the campus. “If the funds have not been allocated in the budget, the allocation should be done in the supplementary budget,” the order said. Taking note of the other areas of conflict cited in the peace committee report, the high court directed for filling up the vacant posts of faculty members immediately, complete renovation work of the Arts block classrooms at the earliest, creating a proper playground for the students, opening of a students’ cooperative store on the campus and the setting up of a “grievance committee” headed by the registrar to address problems of the students.

It also imposed restrictions on any change in the name and the basic structure of Kanika Library.