Bringing an end to a long time legal battle between the Ravenshaw University and two private service providers, the Odisha High Court in a significant judgment on Thursday upheld an order passed by Cuttack District and Sessions Court, thereby allowing the university to run five courses of its own, which were hitherto run by the private parties in the PPP mode.
Justice SC Parija dismissed the appeals filed by Heritage Vision Education Trust and Star Computers Institute Private limited and observed that there was nothing wrong in the order passed by the lower court in June this year. The High Court further observed that the appeals challenging the lower court order were devoid of merit.
The lower 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. The court had also observed that there would not be any irreparable loss to the private parties if the university runs the courses of its own. But if the private parties run the courses, there would be irreparable loss the University and the students
as well.
By the strength of the MoUs signed in 2006 for only three years, 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 BSc and MSc (Information Technology and Management).
Even as 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, University issued letters to the private parties on May 27, 2014 asking then that their services are no more required as the University intends to run the courses of its own from the academic session 2014-15.
The University pointed out that the decision to run the courses of its own was taken after receiving directions from the office of the Chancellor on April 10, 2014. The decision was also to adhere to the notice issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in this regard, the University had contended.