Dropped from LLM admissions, student takes Mumbai University to court

MU claims he did not submit state-level non-creamy layer certificate, vital for his application, but student says admission section did not notice it, wasted time when he met them to resolve the issue

After being excluded from the LLM admission process, a student who secured the ninth position in the merit list of Mumbai University (MU) in the LLB program, has approached the Bombay High Court. Bhushan Walunj claims that even though he submitted a non-creamy layer certificate from the state and central governments, his admission was rejected on the grounds that he did not possess a state-level non-creamy layer certificate.

In addition to attaining the ninth position in the MU merit list for the LLB exam, Walunj scored 82 out of 100 in his LLM CET exam. He claims that he submitted all documents proving his eligibility for reservation. However, due to a mistake by a clerk at the MU’s admission section, who overlooked the state certificate, he was disqualified. If a candidate belongs to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and has a yearly family income of less than R8 lakh per annum, they are categorised as a non-creamy layer.

“I had submitted non-creamy layer certificates from both, state and central governments; my caste is listed at central and state levels, making me eligible for reservation. However, the certificate from the central government is three pages long, with the caste certificate on the first page and the non-creamy layer certificate on the third page. In contrast, the state certificate is just one page. The clerk at the admission section assumed that I had only submitted a caste certificate and not a non-creamy layer certificate, leading to the rejection of my application,” said Walunj who hails from Ahmednagar.

‘MU hiding error’: Walunj approached the administration to rectify the error and requested them to consider his case, emphasising that all his documents were in order and his academic credentials were strong. “The MU administration wasted 10 days and then to cover up their mistake said the state-level non-creamy layer certificate was not submitted and the certificate from the central government was submitted instead. Despite multiple requests, my admission was rejected prompting me to take legal action,” Walunj told mid-day.

In the latest court hearing in the case on Thursday, the MU informed the court that two more rounds of LLM admissions are scheduled. The next hearing for the case is scheduled for November 28. Dr Swati Rautela, head of the Department of Law at MU, said that the matter is sub judice and it would not be appropriate to discuss it. “The matter is currently in court, and we will present our case during the next hearing. It is not suitable to comment on it at this time,” Dr Rautela said. 

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Student’s position in the MU’s LLB merit list

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