HC blow to Ravenshaw recruitment drive

Cuttack: In a major blow to the recruitment drive in Ravenshaw University, the High Court today passed an interim order asking the vice chancellor of the university, University Grant Commission (UGC) and secretary of Higher Education department to continue with the process sans appointment letters.

Hearing a petition filed by a candidate against the university's fresh notification, a bench of Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Justice BR Sarangi noted some violation of norms in the recruitment drive and asked the varsity authorities not to give appointment until the case is decided.

The university had published a fresh advertisement for recruitment of professors and assistant professors after the court, in December 2015, quashed its earlier notification published in June, 2014 which a few candidates had challenged alleging violation of guidelines fixed by University Grants Commission (UGC), Public Service Commission (PSC) and other statutory bodies with regard to selection of teachers in a university.

Ever since the grand old institution was converted into a university in 2006, it has been suffering from acute shortage of teaching faculties.

The state government had sanctioned 153 teaching posts in 2006 to meet the academic requirement of around 6000 students. The University authorities managed to recruit 126 faculties from the sanctioned strength by 2012 and subsequently, the government sanctioned another 114 posts of teachers for the university in 2014 looking at its precarious teacher-student ratio.