On Friday (March 25), the Supreme Court of India refused to entertain a plea filed by the Jammu and Kashmir administration, challenging the directive of the High Court to provide loan assistance to a student pursuing medical education in Bangladesh, reported LiveLaw.
Under a scheme of the National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation, the Jammu and Kashmir Women’s Development Corporation had sanctioned ₹30 lakh for a student named Mubashir Ashraf Bhat in December 2018. She was supposed to take admission in a community based medical college in Bangladesh but ended up taking admission in another college, namely, Khwaja Yunus Ali Medical College.
In her defence, the female student had claimed that the Corporation did not release the funds on time due to which she was forced to take admission to another college. The Corporation had sanctioned the first tranche of loan for the said community college, and not the one where the student was eventually enrolled.
Citing this discrepancy, the Jammu and Kashmir Women’s Development Corporation had refused to sanction the second instalment of the loan. The student then approached the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir, seeking relief in the case. Her petition was turned down by a single-Judge Bench and stated that it was a contractual matter.
The girl then moved the petition before a Division Bench, which on April 20 last year directed the Corporation to release the second tranche of loans. The administration of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir had then filed a petition before the apex court, challenging the directive issued by the High Court.
Arguments in the apex Court
The Supreme Court dismissed the special leave petition and highlighted that education was ‘important’ for the youth in Jammu and Kashmir. During the heading, Justice Chandrachud said, “This poor girl got admission to a community college of Bangladesh. She would have informed you that she is changing her institution. One girl from J &K will become doctor”.
On being pointed out by advocate Taruna A Prasad, representing the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, that the student failed to secure a 6th guarantor, Justice Chandrachud defended the Kashmiri student.
He claimed, “She is a younger person and is pursuing her 2nd year in MBBS in Bangladesh. There is lax on her part, she is a youngster. Many young people make mistakes. Have we not done mistakes when we were young?”
Justice Chandrachurd further added that her admission to the community college was cancelled due to non-payment of fees. “You wanted to destroy the career of this girl sheerly on your fault. She will just be compelled to leave. Medical college cancelled her admission because of non-payment of money,” he emphasised.
According to Justice Surya Kant, the intervention of the Supreme court in the order of the High Court will impede the education of the student. The apex court thus dismissed the petition, saying that “we are of the view that exercising jurisdiction under Article 136, the consequence would be to dislocate the career of student from J & K.”
