The Bombay High Court has ruled that imprisonment does not diminish a person’s right to pursue education, allowing Mahesh Raut, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, to enroll in a law program at Siddharth College in Mumbai.
On September 19, Justices A. S. Gadkari and Neela Gokhale stated that denying Raut admission, despite having a seat, would violate his fundamental rights. Raut, arrested in June 2018, sought admission for the 2024-25 academic year after being granted bail in 2023, though he remains incarcerated due to a prosecution appeal.
While the University of Mumbai and Siddharth College opposed the admission on attendance grounds, the court pointed out that no objections were raised when Raut sought permission to take the Common Entrance Test (CET), indicating his intent to pursue the law degree.
Raut ranked 95th in the CET and had a seat provisionally allotted to him, with his sister paying the necessary fees. However, due to his judicial custody at Taloja Central Prison, he could not attend in person for document verification.
The court permitted Raut’s admission for the 2024-27 batch, allowing a representative to verify documents on his behalf or to collect his signature from prison. The bench emphasized that Raut must comply with all rules and regulations and noted that the university and college could deny him permission to sit for exams if he fails to meet attendance or other eligibility criteria.
Raut is implicated in the case stemming from the Elgar Parishad event in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police allege was funded by Maoists and incited violence at the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial the following day. The National Investigation Agency is currently investigating the case.
Source: PTI
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