Delhi High Court directs Ministry of Science And Technology to Release Scholarship of EWS Student Along With Costs

A single judge bench of Justice Prathiba M. Singh of Delhi High Court while hearing a petition filed by one Vikas Shukla-an EWS student directed the Ministry of Science & Technology to pay Rs. 60,000 with simple interest of 6% and Rs. 50,000 as costs within 8 weeks to the petitioner.

The petition was filed by Vikas seeking directions to the respondents to pay the third installment of his scholarship under the INSPIRE Scheme, as well as payment of compensation and damages for mental harassment and career loss.

Court noted that the petitioner being from an economically poor segment, had to discontinue his studies after his B.Sc. due to the non-award of the scholarship, and therefore the court directed the respondents to pay the amount.

The petitioner passed his 10+2 examinations from the Madhya Pradesh Board in 2015 and received a certificate from the Madhya Pradesh Secondary Examination Board stating that he was qualified for the INSPIRE Scheme scholarship for higher education. Following that, he enrolled himself in B.Sc. (Hons.) Mathematics at Ramjas College, Delhi University.

The respondents awarded him the INSPIRE Scholarship in 2017, and the INSPIRE Scholarship conditions were governed by the Post Offer Implementation Guidelines for Scholars. According to these rules, in order to be initially qualified, the student must be in the top 1% of his respective Board in Class 12. Following that, the first year's performance would determine the continuation of the scholarship in the second year, and the second year's performance would determine the release of the scholarship for the third year. To be eligible, the candidate must have a cumulative score of 60% or a CGPA of 6.00.

The petitioner received the Scholarship amount for the first and second years. Unfortunately, the scholarship was withdrawn for the third year since he had failed to score 6.0 CGPA in the previous year.

Advocates Sunil Kumar Singh and Mukti Singh appearing for the petitioner submitted that he had secured a CGPA of more than 6.0 in the second year and hence could not be denied the scholarship for the third year. It was also claimed that the petitioner mailed a scholarship application to the respondent in 2018, however, the respondent refused because the petitioner's grades were below 6.0 CGPA. Counsel relied on the Post Offer Implementation Guidelines for Scholars and the INSPIRE Program to argue that the scholarship required a cumulative CGPA of 6.0.

The respondent's counsel contended that the petitioner's CGPA in the core subjects should be 6.0.

The bench noted that the petitioner's CGPA for the first and second semesters was 7.45, and for the third and fourth semesters was 6.32, according to the transcripts placed on record. Therefore, the petitioner received a 7.45 CGPA in the first year and a 6.32 CGPA in the second year, therefore the respondent's contention that the petitioner did not have a CGPA of 6 would be incorrect.

The court also noted that according to Clause 5 of the Post Offer Implementation Guidelines for Scholars, the requirement of 6.0 CGPA was in the aggregate and not in the core subjects, and that there was no mention of 6.0 CGPA being required in the core subjects in the Post Offer Implementation Guidelines for Scholars or in the INSPIRE Scheme. As a result, the court determined that the petitioner's scholarship rejection/denial was completely unreasonable.

Accordingly, court disposed of the petition along with all pending applications.

Cause Title: Vikash Shukla vs. Ministry of Science and Technology