Mumbai: The Bombay high court has imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on a college for belatedly informing a student last February of his ineligibility to a BMS course he was admitted to in 2022, and denying him permission for final semester examination. The college said he was ineligible as he hadn’t cleared the HSC exam in the first attempt, as required.The cost must be paid in two weeks to the Mumbai University and its Examination Board, Justices R I Chagla and Farhan Dubash held in their July 1 order available on July 10.The student, Mehul Ghavari, had last year petitioned the HC to challenge the denial of permission by the college to appear for the sixth semester. The HC said that the college, Seth Hirachand Mutha College in Kalyan, is “entirely to blame” and “student should not be made to suffer,’’ since the college was aware of his ineligibility in December 2022, and yet allowed him to continue.Mumbai University’s counsel Rui Rodrigues informed the HC that in December 2022 itself, following scrutiny, the college was informed of the student’s ineligibility.In March, the HC had directed the college to comply with its December 2025 order permitting the student, represented by advocate Atharva Dandekar, to fill the exam form and now the student wanted his results.Advocate Sumit Kothari for the college submitted its affidavit, dated June 29, which said the Covid-19 pandemic led to remote working, communication challenges, staff shortage, and the unprecedent circumstances led to the “oversight in admission’’ to the Bachelor of Management Studies. It was “a human error’’, sans malafides, he added.Rodrigues cited last year’s HC order of Rs 50,000 costs imposed on the college for a similar flawed admission of another student and sought an enhanced cost now, which the HC agreed.“The petitioner should not be made to suffer at the hands of the college,’’ the HC said, and sought an undertaking from the college to not commit such lapses in the future, directing the results be given to the petitioner in a week.
