Orissa HC Says Associate Professor’s Redesignation Is Final, Leaves Disputed 2014 Effective Date To University

The petitioner was appointed as a Reader on 14 August 2014.

By notification dated 14 February 2023, Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanja Deo University redesignated her as Associate Professor, effective from 21 August 2019.

She challenged that effective date, seeking redesignation from her appointment date and consequential benefits.

The University and State submitted that she had not first approached the University for reconsideration of the effective date.

Article 226 permits the High Court to issue appropriate writs, but a writ of mandamus ordinarily requires a demand for performance of the asserted duty and a refusal by the authority; the Court relied on Saraswati Industrial Syndicate Ltd. v. Union of India, (1974) 2 SCC 630, for that principle.

The Division Bench in Priya Ranjan Dash held that the five-year service requirement in Rule 7(1)(iii) of the UGC Regulations, 2010 applied to existing Readers, not directly recruited Readers, and set aside the State’s inconsistent approach under its 4 April 2016 resolution.

The High Court also noted that the University, rather than the State Government, was the authority responsible for dealing with the petitioner’s redesignation.

The Court accepted that the University was the relevant authority and noted that the Division Bench judgment, together with the dismissal of the SLP and review, required consideration by that authority.

However, because the petitioner had not previously asked the University to revise the effective date, the Court did not itself determine that she was entitled to redesignation from 14 August 2014.

It instead directed her to submit a representation with the relevant judgments and documents, while observing that the University should consider their implications.

It held that the redesignation itself had attained finality, but that the effective date remained for the appropriate University authority to consider.

The petitioner was directed to approach the Registrar by 16 November 2026, and the University was directed to decide the representation in accordance with law and the Court’s observations within three months of receiving it.

No costs were awarded.