Student termed ineligible by varsity, HC raps college

Updated on: Thursday, April 07, 2011

The Bombay High Court (HC) has come to the rescue of the students declared ineligible for a course they spent considerable time studying. Recently, hearing a petition filed a student of Khalsa College, the division bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Mridula Bhatkar directed the Mumbai University as well as Khalsa College to take action against the errant officials.

The second year BCom (Financial Markets) student, Niyati Sampat, moved the HC after she was transferred to BCom (General) just two weeks before the fourth semester exams. She alleged no reason was given for the transfer. This action was taken despite Niyati being a student of the college since class 11, and she secured first class grade in all semesters of BCom (Financial Markets).

The court was told that Niyati had not cleared her class 12 exam in ‘one and the same attempt’ and hence she was not eligible to study the course. Niyati’s advocates Mihir Desai and Ushajee Perry argued that she did not hide the facts from the college, and the authorities ought to have been aware of the varsity rules. Four months ago, Swanand Agharkar, from Uran Education Society, had moved the HC in a similar case. He was termed ineligible to study BSc (IT) course when he was about to appear for the third semester.

Worried about this trend, the HC directed the university “to take firm measures to ensure that at least in future the issue of eligibility is decided in time bound manner before the expiry of first academic year itself.” While the court intervention may have brought relief to Niyati and Swanand, Mumbai Mirror found out that Yogesh Awari and Manju Phatke – students of Motilal Jhunjhunwala College in Vashi are not so fortunate.

Awari was pursuing a degree in Financial Marketing. Already three papers into the second semester, the college informed him that he was not eligible for the course. In Manju’s case, when her last exam was to end on March 29, she came to know that she was ineligible for the course as she had not opted for Maths in class 11 and 12. She has been asked to discontinue the course.

Manju works as a part-time receptionist in a local hospital to support her family. “If they had told me earlier, I would have chosen another college. What will I do when my whole year is wasted?” she asked. Motilal Jhunjhunwala College principal M A Madre said, “We don’t want the students to suffer, but we are powerless before rules. My predecessor did not check the forms, and that caused this mistake.”

Student termed ineligible by varsity, HC raps college

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