2 law students move HC against Mumbai varsity over seat allotment

The petitioners have requested the court to declare the merit list issued by MU as invalid

Alleging irregularities in allotment of seats for Master of Laws (LLM) at the University of Mumbai (MU), two students recently moved the Bombay high court (HC) against the varsity. The petition will likely be heard on Monday.

The varsity’s department of law is the only centre in the city that offers LLM (Hindustan Times)

Sanjuna Sudhakaran and Rashi Aggarwal said they were not allotted seats for business law specialisation, despite scoring more in the common entrance test (CET) than the cut-off.

“The petitioners scored 68 and 66, respectively, in CET. They were allotted seats for human rights law, even though business law was their first preference. Students with lower scores got admitted to business law,” said Shubham Agrahari, lawyer of the petitioners and an LLM student. He added that several other students too faced similar problems.

The varsity’s department of law is the only centre in the city that offers LLM. There are 600 seats available in the first year in six specialisations — constitutional law, criminal law, business law, environmental law, human rights and intellectual property rights. About 2,800 candidates had applied for the LLM-CET.

Agrahari said the list of eligible aspirants issued by the university had discrepancies. “For example, an aspirant was listed in the scheduled caste (SC) and general category at the same time. This would have deprived another deserving student a spot on the list. In one instance, there were more vacancies for third merit list than for the second list,” he said.

He also claimed the varsity didn’t follow a consistent process for admission. “The students were forced to secure their seats, instead of waiting for a more preferred specialisation in subsequent rounds of admission,” he added.

The petitioners have requested the court to declare the merit list issued by MU as invalid and direct the varsity to issue a revised merit list. They have also requested to be allowed to wait for and participate in multiple rounds of admissions.