Bombay HC asks unrecognised Institution to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation to BDS Student

Mumbai: Illegal activities of an unauthorized educational institution from Aurangabad and another academic body from Delhi have led the Bombay High Court to direct them to pay a compensation of Rs. 10 lakh to a 19-year-old from Nanded for having suffered a four-year setback in his academic life due to their misdoings.

The division bench of Justice Vibha Kankanwadi and Justice RM Borde penalized the two institutions, last week, keeping in mind that 4 precious years of Abdul Jabbar’s educational life had been wasted in clearing Class 11 and Class 12 from College of Life Technology, Aurangabad, supposedly recognized by the Council of Higher Secondary Education, New Delhi; and also in pursuing Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course, Parbhani.

“The loss occasioned to the petitioner in terms of wastage of precious years of educational life cannot be compensated in terms of money,” said the bench adding, “But, the respondent nos. 4 (the college) and 5 (the council) cannot be allowed to go scot-free.”

Petitioner Jabbar had approached the court to challenge the Maharashtra University of Health Science (MUHS) decision to declare him ineligible for a BDS course. Alongside this, he had also sought damages and penal action against the college and the council.

Jabbar completed senior school from the College of Life Technology, which in turn issued him a certificate of the Council of Higher Secondary Education. However, the MUHS refused recognition to the college and the council as authorized academic bodies.

The court observing irregularities on the part of the college and the Council directed the state and the central government to initiate criminal action against them.

The bench noted that innocent students were being subjected to mischievous doings of the college and the council, “whose existence cannot be considered as legal and valid, ” reports HT

“The respondent nos. 4 and 5 are instrumental in destroying the career of students and causing irreparable loss to them,” said the bench. “Several students like the petitioner have lost precious years of their educational life as a result of the illegal activities of respondent nos. 4 and 5, as such, they deserve to be penalized by initiating appropriate action penal, or otherwise, against them by the Union of India as well as the State of Maharashtra,” it added.