Mumbai: Bombay High Court has upheld Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies’ cancellation of the admissions of three students to the two-year Masters of Management Studies for submitting forged documents showing inflated marks.
The students, aged between 23 and 24 years, were granted admission for 2024-26 under Children of Indian Workers in Gulf Countries supernumerary quota based on their past academic performance and without an entrance examination. After a March 6 anonymous email alleged falsification of marks, their admissions were cancelled on May 27. On April 6, HC allowed them to appear for the fourth/final semester subject to the outcome of the petition.
Because the institute discovered the alleged fraud after almost two years would create a perverse incentive, “To permit retention of such admissions solely.
Agreeing with senior advocate Anil Anturkar, for JBIMS, the judges said “this court cannot permit passage of time, by itself, to cure an illegality which goes to the very foundation of the admission. Desai argued that cancelling admissions at the fag end of the course was excessive. It would mean that the longer an irregular admission remained undetected, the stronger would become the student’s claim to retain it. Our conscience does not permit us to accept such a principle,” they added.
Judicial Response to Allegations of Negligence in Admissions Process
Desai highlighted a lack of digital and forensic evidence linking the disputed documents to the petitioners. The judges clarified that the proceedings of the second committee, formed to evaluate the petitioners’ claims, did not require the stringent standard of proof typical in criminal trials. Instead, the focus was on whether the allegations were substantiated on a preponderance of probabilities. The judges acknowledged ‘some merit’ in the petitioners’ claims of ‘institutional neglect.’ They noted that both committees had expressed concerns over negligence, dereliction of duty by admissions officials, and potential collusion with external agents. The judges urged JBIMS to conduct a fair and independent examination of supernumerary quota admissions for the relevant period and mandated that appropriate actions be taken against any individuals found culpable.