Cuttack, May 18: Orissa High Court has stayed the state government’s order of closing down the State Institute of Educational Technology (SIET) in Bhubaneswar.

The institute was set up to providing quality education through electronic medium at primary and secondary levels.

The state school and education department issued the closure order on April 29 last while ordering to disengage the 21 employees of the autonomous institution from that day. Sukadev Prusty and 10 other employees of the institute filed a writ petition, challenging the closure order.

The division bench of Justice M.M. Das and Justice B.K. Mishra, before which the petition came up on Wednesday, issued an interim stay order along with notices to the Union human resources development department, state school and mass education department, the institute’s director and the Central Institute of Educational Technology.

The court ordered: “If the state is proposing to close it down, such order shall not be implemented without leave of this court.”

“If the petitioners are continuing under the institute in their services, they shall not be disengaged without leave of this court and their salary shall be paid to them regularly during pendency of this writ petition,” the court stated.