NLU Delhi registrar Prof Srikrishna Deva Rao will be appointed as NLUO Cuttack’s vice chancellor (VC).

A search committee chaired by Supreme Court Justice V Gopala Gowda, with NLU Delhi VC Ranbir Singh and Delhi Judicial Academy chairman BT Kaul as members selected Rao to head NLUO after former VC V Nagaraj left the institution.

Rao was selected from a shortlist of five incumbents including Gulbarga University Department of Law Prof JS Patil, IIT Kharagpur Prof Khushal Vibhute, IGNOU director law K Elumalai, and Jagannath University Jaipur vice chancellor VK Agarwal.

Rao is yet to receive his order of appointment from the office of Orissa’s chief minister but sources at the university confirmed his selection.

He joined NLU Delhi in 2010 as its second registrar. He was also the founding director of IGNOU’s school of law from May 2007 to 2010. He has worked with NLSIU Bangalore, Nalsar Hyderabad and GNLU Gandhinagar and was a member of the UGC expert committee to transform legal education in India.

NLSIU Bangalore registrar V Nagaraj, who was appointed as NLUO’s VC in March 2013, re-joined NLSIU on 6 June 2014 as professor.

He had resigned as NLUO Cuttack’s vice chancellor (VC) on 16 May, allegedly over differences with Orissa high court sitting judge Justice Indrajit Mohanty, who is a member of NLUO’s executive council (EC).

Rao will be NLUO’s fourth VC in the five years of its existence, after the law school’s first VC Faizan Mustafa, second VC Dr Krishnamurthy and third VC V Nagaraj all resigned mid-tenure.

Correction: The original published version of this article erroneously stated that Rao was NLU Delhi’s first registrar. The error is regretted and has been corrected.