Gujarat high court sets aside IIM Ahmedabad’s expulsion of 3 students

The high court rejected the institute’s stand, saying the manual gave students two years to complete the coursework, with an additional year to meet the required standards

Published on: Dec 10, 2025, 09:48:53 IST

By Maulik Pathak

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The Gujarat high court has set aside the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA)’s expulsion of three students after they were denied promotion from the first to the second year coursework in the Doctoral Programme in Management (DPM), saying the institute had no power to do so under its manual.

The court said the institute had no power to remove students at the end of the first year. (Shutterstock)

Justice Nikhil S Kariel said the institute had no power to remove students at the end of the first year for academic shortfall. He added the expulsion orders issued on June 7 and confirmed in appeal on June 18 were without the authority of law. The court order dated October 13 was uploaded online on December 9.

The three, Abhilasha Kumar, Atul Gupta, and Uthara PK, were asked on May 22 to explain within 24 hours why their candidature for the second year should not be withdrawn for failing to meet the promotion requirements.

The institute’s executive committee ordered the expulsions for academic shortcomings. The students appealed, but the institute director rejected the appeals.

Advocates Anand Yagnik and Biju Nair, who appeared for the students, told the court that the DPM Manual requires the institute to review, rectify, and take other remedial steps for minor academic shortfalls, and that these measures should have been applied before directing the students to leave.

They said the manual did not allow expulsion for academic shortfall at the end of the first year of coursework. One student received a poor performance rating after citing references generated through Artificial Intelligence in her assignment, which were later found to be fake.

The students argued that even in such circumstances, they should have been heard. IIMA maintained that it had complied with the DPM Manual.

The high court rejected the institute’s stand. It held that the manual gave students two years to complete the coursework, with an additional year available to meet the required standards. It added that the removal could be directed only after this period.

Advocate Megha Jani, who appeared for IIMA, told the court that the manual authorised the executive committee to act on academic shortfalls and the students had been heard. She said no prejudice was shown as none questioned their grades.

There was no immediate response to an email to the institute for comments on the court order.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maulik Pathak
He is an Ahmedabad-based journalist with more than two decades of experience. His career spans business journalism and general news, with reporting across politics, crime, governance, public policy, business, industry, infrastructure, energy, ports, aviation, the environment, wildlife and social issues. He began his career in feature writing before moving into business journalism, reporting on companies and sectors including energy, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and real estate. Over the years, his work expanded to politics, courts, crime, public policy, civic affairs, the environment and wildlife. His reporting has taken him from government offices and courtrooms to factory floors, ports, forests and remote villages, covering stories that range from industrial investments and financial markets to elections, conservation and issues affecting everyday life. While many assignments demand the pace of the daily news cycle, others require sustained reporting over months and years to follow developments beyond the headlines. He started his journalism career with the Asian Age in Ahmedabad in 2002 as a feature writer and sub-editor. Since 2022, he has been working with Hindustan Times. Earlier, he worked with Business Standard, DNA, The Economic Times, Mint and The Times of India. His longest stint was with Mint, where he spent more than eight years reporting across multiple beats. During his career, he has worked in both reporting and editing roles, contributing to page planning, local editions and special editorial projects as newsrooms evolved from print-first operations to digital publishing. Early in his career, he also worked on media and documentary projects with an NGO and as a copywriter at a communications agency before returning to journalism. Away from work, he sometimes makes time for a pair of binoculars, table tennis, cinema and the occasional poem.Read More

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