Professor Panda was the Founding Vice Chancellor of Maharashtra National Law University at Mumbai and formerly Professor of Eminence at DSNLU, Visakhapatnam, before joining to KsoLaw.

Started his academic career in 1987, after a brief stint (1982-’87) with a multi-national power plant consulting engineering firm M/s. Desein Consultants at New Delhi, where he worked as Commercial Executive with excellent track record having vivid experience in marketing, monitoring fund flow and legal support .

Worked as a Principal, NBM Law College at Visakhapatnam; the least known law college during those years gained the distinction of the most popular and most sought after law college in the state of Andhra Pradesh during the years 1987 -1994. A well knitted team of academics were built into the system at the college and all the members of faculty distinctly achieved top positions in their respective fields of study and life.

Mr.Panda having come in contact with two eminent professors of the time viz., Professor N R Madhava Menon and Professor N L Mitra at NLSIU, Bangalore during the formative days of National Law School 1988-1991, found the right motivation and the focus, as well as passion to advance with legal education and contribute to excellence. The growth and development of Panda are dedicated to Professor Madhava Menon, who was kind enough to mentor and guide through out.

Mr.Panda conducted his research in law on the changing structure of Juvenile Justice System in India with reference to young-adult prisoners at Borstal School in Visakhapatanam and obtained PhD degree in 1994 from law faculty, Berhampur University.

Dr. Panda worked at Madhusudan Law College, Utkal University at Cuttack , and later shifted to Berhampur University where he scaled to the position of Professor in the year 2004, while getting exposure to all round academic administration in a university system.

Creating and contributing to the institution differently is his passion, and accepting the invitation from Professor Menon, he joined as a Founding faculty (2000) at NUJS, Kolkata to build the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences. Professor Panda had the privilege of working as Principal of the same college where he graduated in law i.e., Lingraj Law College, Berhampur University, it is a different pleasure in giving back.

Professor Panda got the ultimate opportunity to be the Founding Vice Chancellor of Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai - the much awaited law school of the nation in the financial capital city of India. MNLU Mumbai could be a reality amidst political and financial criticality, paving the way for two other National Law Universities at Nagpur and Auarngabad. Also initiated the Law University at Nagpur on additional charge as Vice Chancellor. The MNLU Mumbai soon after establishment found its distinct space in legal education map of the world. During the tenure 2014 -2018 Professor Panda has made his mark and availed opportunity to work under the able guidance of Hon’ble Chancellor Mr Justice S A Bobde, currently Chief Justice of India, and Hon’ble Justice FA Kalifulla, Former Judge Supreme Court of India.

In 2016, Professor Panda received most prestigious among legal educationists, ‘N R Madhava Menon Best Law Teacher Award’ jointly instituted by the Society for Indian Law Firms (SILF) and Menon Institute of Law and Administration (MILAT), with a cash award of Rupees One lakh and Citation. During the academic and administrative tenure Professor Panda presided over many law conference, meetings, and seminars in India and abroad. Besides active and passionate teaching, delivering lectures, authored extensively articles, contributed to law journals, published books, monographs, research projects and study reports. The areas of interest include jurisprudence, legal method, legal education, criminal law and administration, disaster management law, human rights and environmental law.