Delay in document verification costs law student 2 yrs

MUMBAI: A second-year law student of MS College of Law in Mumbra, has filed a complaint with the governor, Ch Vidyasagar Rao, chancellor of all the state’s public universities after the college discontinued his degree last year due to delay in document verification.

Mayur Pise was admitted to a three-year LLB course in 2014-15.

College authorities discovered that the information provided by Pise, in his application form, did not match the documents he submitted later, making him ineligible for the course.

According to the college, Pise had secured admission in scheduled caste (SC) category, the eligibility criteria for which was a minimum of 40% marks in graduation, which is less than the 41% marks scored by him. However, the caste certificate submitted by the student two years later indicated that he belongs to other backward castes (OBC) category, the eligibility criteria for which is 45%. While the college said that the student’s failure in submitting his documents in time cost him two years, Pise has blamed the college and the University of Mumbai (MU) for the delay in the verification process.

“We kept asking Pise to furnish his caste certificate, but he didn’t do so for two years. Despite that, we allowed him to continue with the course. However, we couldn’t admit him to the third year, as his caste certificate suggests that he is an OBC, and not an SC as he had initially indicated,” said Mahek Pathan, principal.

The student, however, argues that he had complied with all the norms of admission. “I had submitted all my original documents including caste certificate during the admission.”