Bombay HC quashes Mumbai University’s denial to admit student from Nepal in MA course – The Indian Express

A division bench of Justice S V Gangapurwala and Justice R N Laddha on December 1 passed a judgement while hearing a plea filed by Megha Puri, an international student from Nepal and graduate from Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune, challenging a communication sent from MU on November 26, 2021, declining her admission to in the psychology course.

The bench observed that the MU had already issued a letter of offer to the petitioner to take admission to the course and she had paid tuition fees for the same. The university had conducted her aptitude test and was ready to accommodate her if she undergoes a 45-day bridge programme and clears the aptitude test as she did not fulfil the eligibility of having passed BA in psychology to pursue MA in the same stream.

The court held that the petitioner should not “suffer for the mistake committed by the university” as the decision to cancel admission was “mid-way through the academic year” and she was “not at fault.”

The HC directed MU to issue an eligibility certificate to the petitioner for the academic year 2022-23, and grant admission for the said course.

Senior advocate M P Rao for the petitioner informed the bench that she had applied for the said course conducted by MU under its April 16, 2021, circular for international students for the academic year 2021-22. After complying with all requirements, she was issued a letter of provisional eligibility and admission in July 2021, and a letter of offer for admission was issued to her in September. Based on the said letter, she paid Rs 1.28 lakh as eligibility, application and course fees to the Department of Applied Psychology at MU on September 28, 2021.

However, on November 26, 2021, through an impugned communication her admission was denied by the eligibility department citing that her previous educational background did not fulfil the criteria.

In December 2021, the petitioner wrote a letter to the MU Pro-Vice Chancellor, seeking to secure her admission, after which the MU directed the head of the department of applied psychology to conduct her aptitude test. However, the result of the said test was not made known to her. Only after the court order, she was allowed to appear for the second-semester examination, which was held in June 2022.

Puri said she attended online as well as offline classes and also flew down to Mumbai during the Covid-19 pandemic and stopped applying for admission to other institutes following her admission to MU. The impugned communication denying her admission “without any reason” was a “wrongful and illegal action” from the MU and the same would cause her to lose an entire academic year.

Advocate Ashutosh Kulkarni representing the MU justified the decision and said that the petitioner never fulfilled the eligibility criteria of passing BA in Psychology to pursue the MA programme, so admission could not be granted to her.

Kulkarni further said that MU had made efforts to accommodate the petitioner at KC College, Churchgate, which required her to complete a 45-day bridge programme. He informed the bench that the petitioner had cleared the aptitude test.

After perusing submissions, the bench observed it was difficult to approve the impugned communication and set aside the same.