The Orissa High Court has appointed assistant solicitor general Shaktidhar Das as the amicus curie and asked him to file a report within two weeks about the present status of the infrastructure and faculty positions of the Ravenshaw University.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice A K Goel and Justice A K Rath while adjudicating yesterday on a PIL filed by a former president of erstwhile Ravenshaw College Chittaranjan Mohanty, decided to appoint the amicus curie to assist the court in deciding the petition.
Mohanty, in his PIL, had urged the High Court to direct the state government to adhere to the guidelines and norms prescribed by the UGC and AICTE in respect of appointment of faculties of the university.
The PIL said although, the erstwhile autonomous college was upgraded to the status of a unitary university in 2006, academic activities were severely affected due to poor infrastructure and inadequate faculties.
The state government, it said, sanctioned only 153 faculty positions and for last seven years the university was functioning with only less than 80 permanent faculties and the remaining sanctioned positions were not filled up due to cases pending in courts.
