No coercion behind Chandrakant Patil's speedy degree: MU

Mumbai: The University of Mumbai has found itself amid yet another controversy as members from YuvaSena, a student faction, alleged that varsity provided a speedy duplicate degree to Higher Education Minister Chandrakant Patil after his original document went missing. The group alleged that the MU catered to the minister in a day while the regular students have to wait for a period of months to get the same document.

Pradeep Sawant, a former MU senate member, further claimed that the minister skipped the necessary step of filing an online application for the certificate's copy.

"The minister passed out from Siddharth College affiliated to Mumbai University in 1980 and had taken his Convocation Certificate in 1987. He managed to acquire a copy of the certificate within a day on March 23, 2023, while other regular students have to file online applications and wait for several months to obtain their certificate," said Sawant.

Responding to the allegations, Mumbai University released an official statement on the same evening saying, "MU's older degrees were created manually and were not sent out for printing. These are prepared at the university itself and old degree formats are ready with us, where the details are only entered manually. The university has faced no pressure from Chandrakant Patil or his office."