Imprisonment doesn't restrict right to pursue education: Bombay High Court on Elgar case accused's plea

Mumbai: Imprisonment does not take away a person's right to pursue further education, the Bombay High Court has said while permitting Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case accused Mahesh Raut to take admission in a city college for law degree.

Denying opportunity to take admission in the college despite being allotted a seat would be violation of the fundamental right, a division bench of Justices A S Gadkari and Neela Gokhale said on September 19.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Mahesh Raut, who was arrested in June 2018, seeking a direction to the University of Mumbai to grant him admission for the law degree course at the Siddharth College of Law in south Mumbai for the academic year of 2024-25.

His counsel Mihir Desai told the court that in 2023, Raut was granted bail by HC but he continued to remain in jail as the prosecution had challenged the bail order.

The Supreme Court stayed the bail order which continues till date.

The University of Mumbai and the Siddharth College opposed the plea, claiming law was a professional course which requires a candidate to have compulsory attendance of 75 per cent, which obviously Raut would not be able to fulfil.

The court noted that when Raut sought permission to appear for the Common Entrance Test (CET), no one opposed.

The purpose of appearing for the CET was obviously to seek admission for the law degree course, it said.

"Imprisonment does not restrict an individual's right to pursue further education. Denying the opportunity to take admission in the college despite a seat being allotted is a violation of the fundamental right of the petitioner," the HC said.

Raut had appeared for the Maharashtra CET law examination after taking permission from a special court and ranked 95 in the merit list of state candidates.

He was provisionally allotted a seat in the Siddharth College and his sister has paid the required fees to freeze the seat.

For the institutional round, Raut was physically required to be present for the verification of documents in the college.

Since he is currently in judicial custody and lodged at the Taloja Central Prison in neighbouring Navi Mumbai, he was unable to remain physically present.

The high court permitted Raut to take admission in the law degree course at the Siddharth College for the 2024-27 batch.

"Since the college requires physical presence of a candidate for verification of documents, we leave it to the college to consider permitting the authorised representative/next of kin of the petitioner to physically attend the college and verify the documents or in the alternative, to take the signature of the petitioner on the documents from the Taloja Central Prison," the court said.

The bench, however, clarified it has not granted any other exemption to Raut and said he shall abide by all rules and regulations as other candidates.

"The university and the college are at liberty to refuse permission to the petitioner from appearing in the examination for failure to satisfy the minimum attendance criteria or any other eligibility criteria. The petitioner shall not claim any equity on the basis of this order," it said.

Raut was arrested in the case pertaining to the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, which according to Pune police was funded by Maoists.

The inflammatory speeches made there led to violence at the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in Pune the next day, police alleged.

The case was later probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).