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Rohan Virani & Ors. v. State of Maharashtra & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 985Decided 2 Sept 2019
Civil Appeal No. 6753 of 2019
Justice Indu Malhotra · Justice Sanjiv Khanna

Background

The Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), a department of the University of Mumbai, had enjoyed "autonomous" status for five years (2014-2019), which let it fill 85% of its MBA/MMS seats from across the state on merit. When that five-year status lapsed just before the 2019-2020 admission cycle and JBIMS's renewal application was still pending, the Directorate of Technical Education treated it as "non-autonomous," reserving 70% of seats for University of Mumbai students only. Students from other Maharashtra universities, who would have ranked high enough to get in under the autonomous formula, challenged this before the Bombay High Court, which ruled in their favour; students who had already been admitted under the non-autonomous formula then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that the delay in processing JBIMS's renewal of autonomous status was due to lapses by both JBIMS and the University, but held it would be unjust to penalise the meritorious students who would have qualified under the long-standing autonomous admission formula because of that administrative delay. It therefore directed that, for the 2019-2020 academic year only, admissions be conducted as per the Bombay High Court's judgment (i.e., treating JBIMS as autonomous), with the process completed within two weeks. However, the Court expressly remitted the broader, unresolved legal questions, about the applicability of the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016 and UGC Regulations to JBIMS's autonomy status going forward, back to the High Court for full determination, clarifying that its own findings were only prima facie and for the limited purpose of not stalling that year's admissions.

Lesson Learnt

Courts will often protect students' reliance on an existing, long-followed admission policy from being disrupted by an administrative lapse in renewing a status, even while leaving deeper, unresolved legal questions for proper adjudication rather than deciding them finally in an urgent interim-style hearing.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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