HC upholds district court order on Ravenshaw University

Orissa High Court today upheld an order passed by Cuttack District and Sessions Court allowing the Ravenshaw University to run five courses on its own, which were hitherto run by two private parties in PPP mode.
A single-judge bench of Justice S C Parija dismissed the appeals filed by Heritage Vision Education Trust and Star Computers Institute Pvt Ltd and observed that the appeals challenging the lower court order were devoid of merit.
The district court in its June 27, 2014 order had said that if the University intends, it can continue the courses by itself or through the private parties.

Following a three-year-long agreement the university had signed in 2006, the private parties were running Bachelor in Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor in Information Science and Telecommunication (BIST), Masters in Journalism and Mass Communication (MJMC), MSc in electronic and telecommunication and B.Sc and M.Sc (Information Technology and Management).
Though the MoUs' validity ended in 2009, these private parties ran the courses till 2011 when the then Vice Chancellor Debdas Chhotray formalised the MoUs again for three years in August 2011. On the eve of the expiry of these MoUs on August 29, 2014, the university wrote to the private parties on May 27, 2014 stating that their services are no longer required as the university intends to run the courses of its own from the academic session 2014-15.

The decision was taken in April to adhere to the norms of the University Grants Commission (UGC) which bars universities, "whether Central, State, Private or Deemed can offer its programmes through franchising arrangements with private coaching institutes even for the purpose of conducting courses through distance mode".
When contacted, the University authorities said the students, who have taken admission in these courses during 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic sessions, would now be taken care of by the University directly.