Ravenshaw University in Cuttack

Cuttack, March 6: Orissa High Court has ordered a probe into persisting inadequacy in teaching staff at Ravenshaw University and delay in start of construction of its proposed second campus.

The court ordered for the inquiry adjudicating on a PIL seeking intervention for filling up the vacancies in faculty positions along with creation of new faculty positions at Ravenshaw and utilisation of land allotted for its second campus.

Advocate Chittaranjan Mohanty, former president of Ravenshaw College Students’ Union (1970-71), filed the PIL.

“The division bench of Chief Justice A.K. Goel and Justice A.K. Rath, before which the PIL came up today, appointed senior advocate Saktidhar Das as amicus curiae in the case and directed him to submit a report on the state of affairs in Ravenshaw University within 15 days,” petitioner counsel Kshirod Rout told The Telegraph.

“The court expected the amicus curiae, who is also the assistant solicitor general of India, to suggest remedial measures keeping the larger public interest in view,” Rout said.

Earlier, the court had issued notice to the state government and the Ravenshaw University. But, it did not receive any response from the state government.

The petition had pointed out that the university had been undergoing a major crisis in imparting education owing to huge vacancies in faculty positions.

Worried over the teaching staff shortage, the varsity students have been staging demonstrations and demanding immediate measures as it was calling upon timely completion of courses in various departments.

At present, there are 75 faculty members in various departments of the varsity against a total sanctioned strength of 153. The University Grants Commission prescribed a teacher-student ratio required sanction of over 300 more faculty positions, the PIL contended.

The petition said though two years had passed since land was allotted for the second campus of Ravenshaw University, construction was yet to take off.

The state government had allotted 141 acres to Ravenshaw at Brajabiharipur in Athagarh tehsil.

The present campus of Ravenshaw University offers regular courses in arts, science and commerce along with some self-financing courses. Of the 23 departments, 17 offer postgraduate courses. A centre for doctoral and post-doctoral research, it also offers MPhil courses in 12 subjects. There are 500 rooms and 34 laboratories in the varsity. But, these are insufficient to accommodate the existing strength of nearly 7,000 students, the petition pointed out, seeking direction to develop infrastructure according to requirement.