In a letter to the Odisha Higher Education Department and the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC), the University Grants Commission (UGC) has called for the state government to abide by the Supreme Court's stay order on the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in universities. According to a report by IANS, it was Secretary of the UGC, Rajnish Jain, who wrote the letter to the Odisha government. On May 21 this year, the Supreme Court issued a stay order on the Odisha Universities (Amendment) Act, 2020. Through this Act, the state government had intended to recruit teaching staff and control appointments to important academic and administrative posts in state universities.
The UGC and Ajit Kumar Mohanty, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, had petitioned the apex court in this matter, after which the stay order was passed. The court had also sought a reply from the Odisha government and had set the matter for hearing in June. Now, the UGC has observed that the OPSC is carrying out the recruitment process for the post of assistant professor of Sociology and Commerce, as per an advertisement issued in 2020-21.
"Since the recruitment of teachers/faculty by the OPSC and that of non-teaching staff by the State Selection Board (SSB) is directly in issue in the aforesaid Special Leave Petitions (SLP) pending before the SC, the continuation of the recruitment process will be in the teeth of the stay order granted by the court," Jain said in his letter, reported ANI. Jain went on to warn the government that it reserves all rights to take any necessary legal action to ensure that the court's stay order is complied with.
In January 2022, the Odisha High Court upheld the validity of the Odisha Universities (Amendment) Act. The UGC had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against this order. It has held that the state's Act is in violation of the regulations put in place by the UGC. While the commission's regulations say that appointments in state universities, including that of the Vice-Chancellors, be done through a search-cum-selection committee that comprises about five individuals of eminence in the space of education. Importantly, they should not have anything to do with the concerned university. However, the state's Act says that the committee must consist of the Chancellor's (Governor) nominee and a nominee of the state government. Moreover, making the OPSC in charge of conducting exams to recruit teachers was also violative of the UGC's 2018 regulations, stated the petition.
