Orissa High Court Pulls Up Utkal University For Delay In Publication Of LLB Results

The petitioner had approached the Court with a prayer to get the semester results published in a time-bound manner. He relied on an order of Odisha Higher Education Department which required the University to end the final (10^th) semester exams and publish results thereof latest by 15^th August 2022.

At a point of hearing, Mr. Amit Nath, counsel for Utkal University submitted that the inadvertent delay is owing to the unavailability of sufficient number of staffs in the University. This irked Justice Sarangi, who orally observed,

"You are not filling-up the posts (of faculties) and paying meagre salaries to guest faculties and relying on them for teaching. Stop that University. You are only concerned about how to get TA, vehicles, houses. You are not concerned about the education of students. Students are paying fees. The institution is running through the students' money."

An angry Justice Sarangi further questioned the University counsel,

"(Do) you know how the students of University Law College and Madhusudan Law College reading? Then, why are you taking fees from them? Whatever they (the students) are accomplishing is due to their own hardwork…They are the ones who are passing OJS (Odisha Judicial Service) examination and they are the ones who are joining the legal profession. What education you give to them?"

Factual Background:

On a previous date of hearing, the petitioner, who appeared in-person, had informed the Court that though the 10^th semester examinations are over but the results of 9^th semester were pending to be published. The Bench had then orally asked the University counsel to publish 9^th semester results by 1^st August. On Thursday, when the case came up for hearing, both the University counsel and the petitioner submitted that the results of 9^th semester are out. Then, the Court was inclined to dispose of the petition. However, the petitioner intervened and urged the Court to direct the University authorities to publish the 10^th semester results in a time-bound manner, as per the guidelines of the State Higher Education Department.

The Court inquired if the above relief has been prayed in the petition, to which the petitioner replied in positive. Then, the Court directed the University counsel to publish results of 10^th semester exams within a definite period of time and asked how much time the University requires to publish the results. Mr. Nath prayed for three weeks time and cited unavailability of staffs. This led to the above outburst from Justice Sarangi.

The Court, however, granted three weeks time to the University to publish the results and disposed of the petition.