The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has struck down a clause from the government resolution which had removed the income criterion for overseas scholarships, and stressed that the scholarship’s original intent of supporting backward students should be preserved.
A division bench of Justices Avinash Gharote and M S Jawalkar passed the verdict on Wednesday, stating that by nullifying Clause D(2) of the GR issued by the Maharashtra government on June 27, 2017, it wants rectify the imbalance in scholarship distribution and uphold fairness in access to educational opportunities.
The Clause D(2) exempted students admitted to the top 100 QS World University Ranking institutions from the income criteria, which led to financially-stable students availing benefits intended for economically-deprived candidates, thus distorting the scheme’s purpose, it noted.