HC reserves verdict on govt plea against order quashing schools’ merger

Cuttack: The Orissa high court has reserved its verdict on the appeal filed by the state govt challenging a single-judge bench order which had quashed its decision for merger of schools having very low student strength.
The outcome of the state govt’s appeal assumes significance as the dispute involves the legal validity of the notification the school and mass education department had issued for the merger of nearly 16,000 schools on March 11, 2020, by when around 4,500 had already been merged.
On May 4, 2021, Justice B R Sarangi had quashed the notification and directed the school and mass education department “to restore back the position of the school in question, as before, and provide necessary infrastructure for smooth running of the same”. The dispute returned to the high court with the state govt filing the appeal challenging the single judge’s order on May 13, 2021. Acting on it, a division bench issued an interim stay order on July 20, 2021.
The appeal was pending till the two-judge bench of Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice M S Raman completed hearing on Tuesday after hearing the submissions of advocate general Ashok Kumar Parija and counsels of other parties.