Bombay High Court seeks MNLU Nagpur response to plea challenging Ph.D programme admissions

The Bombay High Court, Nagpur Bench recently sought the response of Maharashtra National Law University (MNLU), Nagpur on a petition challenging Ph.D admissions at the University for the coming academic year [Dipak Namdev Kharat v. MNLU Nagpur through its Vice-Chancellor, Nagpur & Ors].The petition claims that the University filled unreserved category seats while denying seats to candidates belonging to reserved categories.A Bench of Justices Anil L Pansare and Nivedita P Mehta issued notice in the matter and will hear MNLU Nagpur in the next hearing. .The petitioner claimed that he applied for the Ph.D programme that had one seat reserved for Nomadic Tribe-C (NT-C) category. Subsequently, he was called for an interview. In the list of provisionally admitted candidates, however, the seat was allotted to a student from the unreserved category.Upon raising a grievance with MNLU Nagpur, the University's Convenor of the Doctoral Council informed the petitioner that a sub-committee would examine the issue and provide its recommendations.As the PhD course has commenced without the recommendations of the Doctoral Council, the student approached the Court..According to the official admission notification, the University advertised 35 seats with a clear mandate for Maharashtra state reservations. As per the petitioner, the selection list shows the following:1. Total exclusion of SC/ST/SEBC: While 5 seats were reserved for SC, 2 for ST, and 4 for SEBC, the provisional list shows zero (0) candidates selected from these categories.2. Non-adherence to Nomadic Tribes Matrix: The University failed to fill the specific seats for De-notified Tribes (A), Nomadic Tribes (C) and Nomadic Tribes (D), despite each having 1 seat allocated in the official matrix.3. Diverting seats to General Category: While only 12 seats were advertised for the Unreserved (General) category, the University has admitted 22 candidates under this category - nearly double the advertised capacity -effectively absorbing seats meant for reserved candidates..The plea thus sought quashing of the list of candidates admitted for the Ph.D programme at MNLU Nagpur. It also sought directions to the University to conduct the admission process afresh.The student was represented by Advocate SD Borkute..[Read order].Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.