(Vikram Nath and Augustine George Masih, JJ.)
Pratima Das ____________________________________ Appellant;
v.
State of Himachal Pradesh and Others ______________ Respondent(s).
Civil Appeal No. of 2026 (Arising out of SLP (Civil) No. 15180 of 2025)§, decided on January 6, 2026
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
Augustine George Masih, J.:—
1. Leave granted.
2. The Appellant has preferred this appeal seeking release of her marksheets of the 5th to 10th semester and degree in law having graduated from Manav Bharti University (hereinafter “MB University”) on completion of the BA. LLB programme batch of 2017-2022.
3. The Appellant took admission in MB University under the Admission no. R17BALLB0033 and Registration No. MBU-2017-0536 for the session batch of 2017-2022 and was issued a Bonafide Certificate dated 30.08.2017 in this regard.
4. On registration of a First Information Report, an investigation ensued against MB University on the allegation of sale of fake degrees. A Special Investigation Team was set up which seized the complete records of MB University in the year 2019. Since the matter was pending adjudication before the Court of Additional District and Sessions Judge, Solan, the students of the University, including the Appellant, were suffering, as they were unable to procure their academic documents. This resulted in grave prejudice and hardship due to inability to pursue their further academic career and adversely affected future professional prospects after graduation. The Appellant was only issued marksheets for the first four semesters.
5. Aggrieved by the inability of MB University to release such documents, for the reasons as stated above, students from different departments of batches of 2019, 2020 and 2021 jointly wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh highlighting their grievances and frustrations. The said letter was ordered by the Court to be registered as a Public Interest Litigation and numbered as CWPIL No. 22 of 2022.
6. In order to address the grievance of the students, the High Court of Himachal Pradesh, proceeded to direct MB University to constitute a committee for the purpose of verification and release of the photocopies of the relevant documents of the students. Certain parameters and criteria were set out for supplying these documents, i.e.; whether the courses in which the students were found registered were duly approved by the UGC and within the allotted seats for MB University; whether the record of the student found reflected in the Green register and Admission disclosure; whether the data had been sent for the session for which the student was enrolled, and whether the record of the examination reflects the entry of the student along with the above parameters. It was further observed that students whose admission and registration year would be disputed would not be considered for supply of documents.
7. When the Appellant herein approached MB University for procuring her documents, she was informed that though she was found to be enrolled in the green register under admission no. R17BALL0033, her name was not reflected in the admission disclosure list for the session 2017-2018. Instead, the name of one Mr. Ayaan Narwal was mentioned against her admission number. Due to such circumstances, her documents could not be issued to her.
8. Aggrieved by the non-acceptance of her request for supply of documents, the Appellant approached the High Court by filing CWP No. 1480/2024, which was disposed of with a direction to the custodian of the records to decide her case after giving her an opportunity of being heard. The Appellant, in pursuance thereto, submitted representation to the Superintendent of Police, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, who had the custody of the records of MB University, for issuance of her unsupplied marksheets. This was rejected on the ground that her name did not reflect in the admission disclosure list.
9. The Appellant, once again approached the High Court by filing CWP No. 6075 of 2024, which was withdrawn with liberty to avail of the appropriate remedy. In the meanwhile, an interim order was passed in the pending Public Interest Litigation i.e., CWPIL No. 22 of 2022 directing the Registrar of the University to provide the green register and disclosure list to the students to enable them to verify the same. She also filed an impleadment application in the PIL which came to be allowed. The Appellant, being similarly placed as the petitioners in the PIL, visited MB University, where she was handed over copy of the green register.
10. Based on such inspection by the students, MB University placed on record status of each of the petitioners in a tabulated form. In the affidavit filed before the Court, it was stated by the Registrar of the University that 34 students visited the University for verification of their records, where several discrepancies had come to light. Which was disputed by the petitioners to the PIL on facts and records.
11. The PIL, ultimately came to be disposed of by the Court by observing that it was not in a position to determine such disputed questions of facts and it would be open to the students to approach the competent court of jurisdiction for redressal of their grievances vide order dated 20.12.2024.
12. The Appellant has approached this Court impugning the above order dated 20.12.2024 passed by the High Court aggrieved by her inability in securing her documents despite the delay of more than two years in court.
13. The learned counsel for the Appellant has submitted that the Appellant has passed all semester-wise examinations and has the attendance list which shows this. The name of the Appellant is also reflected in the green sheet register. It was the duty of MB University and other concerned authorities to include her name in the Admission Disclosure list on which she had no control. The Appellant had diligently followed up with MB University on numerous occasions for handing over of the documents but the same was denied to her assigning reasons which were frivolous and are not attributable to her. Furthermore, the PIL was kept pending for more than two and half years and the petitioners therein have been left to further fend on their own by relegating them to avail remedies before a competent court.
14. It has been submitted that in the absence of the relevant documents, the Appellant has not been able to enroll herself in the Bar Council, pursue higher education, or sit for any competitive examinations. Non-supply of documents has put her career at stake and such grave prejudice has been caused for no fault of hers.
15. The learned counsel for the Respondent-State and the Director General of Police have submitted that the documents of the Appellant could not be verified due to incomplete records. The role assigned to the Document Verification Committee was confined to the extent of verification and supplying of documents and they could not create, alter or correct any of the documents of the University.
16. The affidavits filed by MB University in pursuance to the orders passed by this Court in the present case made it amply clear that the University acknowledged the factum of mistake having occurred at their end while preparing the admission disclosure list wherein the name of the Appellant was not mentioned, instead the name of another student was mentioned and therefore, the respondent-University was called upon to specifically file an affidavit detailing the clear and complete facts.
17. In compliance thereto, an additional affidavit dated 03.12.2025 has been filed by the Registrar, MB University, where in paras 3 to 9 it has been stated as follows:—
“3. The Respondent No. 3, i.e., Manav Bharti University (MBU) was established, incorporate, and is regulated under the Manav Bharti University (Establishment & Regulation) Act, 2009, duly enacted by the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly, receiving the assent of the Hon’ble Governor on 22.09.2009. The University is duly recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC) under Section 22 of the UGC Act, 1956, and all courses offered by the University are duly approved and recognized.
4. That, it is submitted on the behalf of the Respondent No. 3 that before registration of F.I.R. against the Manav Bharti University, it’s administration was controlled by Manav Bharti Charitable Trust, but now the administration is controlled by H.P. Government.
5. That as per the allocated seats and admission process of the University, the Petitioner took admission in the B.A. LL.B. (5-year) Course with Respondent No. 3 under Admission No. R17BALLB0033 and Registration No. MBU-2017-0536 for the Academic Session 2017-2022.
6. That the Petitioner has pursued and cleared the examinations from 1st Semester to 10th Semester, and the Detailed Marks Certificate (DMCs) for the 1st to 4th Semesters have already been issued to her in the normal course of University functioning.
7. That the name of the Petitioner is duly reflected in the University’s Green Sheet Register/Admission Register, which is the primary internal record maintained by the University. However, due to a clerical and inadvertent human error, by the previous administration of the University Petitioner’s name was not included in the admission disclosure list sent to the HP-PERC, and instead, the name of one Mr. Ayaan Narwal was mistakenly forwarded.
8. That the as per University records, Mr. Ayaan Narwal had independently taken admission in the B.A. LL.B Course under Admission No. R16BALLB0047 and Registration No. MBU-2016-0414 for the academic session 2016-2021, and therefore, his inclusion in place of the Petitioner was a clerical mismatch and not a substitution or deletion of the Petitioner’s actual admission.
9. That it is respectfully submitted that the aforesaid mistake done by previous administration was purely inadvertent, unintentional, and bona fide, without any element of mala fide, manipulation, or suppression. The University has consistently maintained the Petitioner’s academic records, internal registers, examination entries, and result data, thereby proving that she was a bona fide student throughout.”
18. As is evident from the above-quoted portion of the affidavit, MB University has admitted that the Appellant had taken admission in the BA. LLB course with admission no. R17BALLB0033 and Registration No. MBU-2017-0536 for the Academic Session 2017-2022 and has cleared all semester-wise examinations. Detailed Marks Certificates for the 1st to 4th semester were issued in the normal course of University functioning. It has affirmed that the name of the Appellant is duly reflected in the University’s Green Register, which is the primary internal record maintained by the University. However, due to a clerical and inadvertent error, the name of the Appellant was not included in the admission disclosure list sent to the committee and the name of one Mr. Ayaan Narwal was mistakenly forwarded.
19. It has further been brought on record in the above affidavit that Mr. Ayaan Narwal had taken admission in the BA. LLB Course under Admission No. R16BALLB0047 for the academic session 2016-2021. Inclusion of his name in place of the name of the Appellant was a clerical mismatch and not a substitution or deletion of the Appellant’s actual admission.
20. From the above affidavit and documents on record, it is undisputed that the Appellant has been a bona fide student of MB University and had cleared all her examinations. It is also evident that the exclusion of the name of the Appellant in the admission disclosure list has occurred due to no fault on part of the Appellant, rather the same is at the hands of the University for which the Appellant cannot be made to suffer.
21. Having regard to the above established facts based on records, we are of the view that the Appellant has been deprived of her documents for no fault of hers for a substantial period of time and relegating her to another court of competent jurisdiction as observed by the High Court vide the impugned order dated 20.12.2024 would no more be required as there is no factual dispute left.
22. In view of the above, the appeal is allowed and MB University is directed to issue the marksheets of 5th to 10th semester, the degree and any other relevant documents, if any, to the Appellant within four weeks from today.
23. Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of.
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§ 2026 INSC 13
