Odisha University legislation challenged in HC, constitutional validity questioned
CUTTACK: The Odisha Universities (Amendment) Act-2020, which the State government had enforced through an ordinance recently, has come under judicial scrutiny with the Orissa High Court. The Court on Wednesday took up two PILs challenging the constitutional validity of the amendment. The petitions contended that the legislative measure is beyond the competence of the State. The amendments are prima facie bad in law, unconstitutional and suffer from lacunae, the petitions stated.
A professor of Utkal University Kunja Bihari Panda and a retired professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University Ajit Kumar Mohanty filed the petitions. The Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary of Law department, Commissioner-cum-Secretary of Higher Education of Odisha government, University Grants Commission, and the Secretary of Department of Higher Education under Ministry of Human Resources Development have been named as respondents in the petitions.
The division bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice BR Sarangi issued notices to the respondents while fixing January 11 as next date for hearing. While seeking quashing of the law, the petitions have also sought an interim stay on its operation.
The petitioners have alleged that the amendments have arbitrarily taken away the administrative and academic freedom of the universities paving the way for the government to control the affairs of the universities through its bureaucracy.