Mumbai: An economically backward law student has alleged discrimination by Mumbai University (MU) and said that he has been denied admission to the LLM programme.
A graduate from Government Law College, Gaurav Dhaye has filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court against MU for barring him from uploading a legal copy of the receipt for the application for non-creamy layer certificate.
What went down with Dhaye
Mr Dhaye had applied for admission to LLM first year under the ‘OBC non-creamy layer’ category after MU published a notification inviting applicants in Sept 2022. Claiming to be an eligible candidate with all requisite qualifications and documents, he alleged, “Mumbai University had arbitrarily prevented me from participating in the document verification process for admission to the LLM course. Candidates selected in the first merit and second merit lists were given extension for document verification, while I was prevented from uploading the receipt of my application.”
MU officials, though, remained unavailable despite repeated attempts to get their comments.
As per the notification, Mr Dhaye had completed his registration process by uploading the required documents and paid the fees. On Dec 27, 2022 he discovered that his “non-creamy layer” OBC certificate (valid till March 2022) had lapsed, so he promptly applied for a fresh non-creamy layer certificate the same day for which official receipt of the application was issued.
MU refused to accept fresh certificate, alleges student
“I visited the MU office to rectify the inadvertent error and to submit the copy of the receipt, which was well within the prescribed time for registration. However, I wasn’t allowed to rectify the error on the pretext that the copy of the receipt and the date of admission cannot be the same. I was asked to come again the next day to discuss with the Head of Law Department for redressal,” explained Mr Dhaye.
He said there is no bar or exclusion given for submission of valid receipt for certificate of non- creamy layer. “The date of deadline is not specifically mentioned so the last date of submission of application is to be considered as the valid date for submission of documents,” he argued.
Mr Dhaye said he was issued a fresh ‘non-creamy layer’ certificate by the sub divisional officer (Yavatmal) on Jan 4, 2023 which the MU refused to accept. He alleged discrimination in rectifying the error even as other students were allowed the opportunity to rectify the same and given extension.
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