Mumbai man says take away my fake engineering degree, Bombay high court says go to SC

Mumbai city news: HC said while it “sympathised” with him, he must either reconcile his guilt or approach the Supreme Court

The Bombay high court on Thursday rejected a 26-year-old man’s guilt-driven plea seeking that his engineering degree be revoked because he had procured it through fraudulent means.

The engineer said he paid an agent Rs 20,000 to get a fake pass certificate for the mathematics paper he had flunked. (Pic for Representation)

A bench of Justices Shantanu Kemkar and MS Karnik expressed “sympathy” for the petitioner Vaibhav Patil, but rejected his application seeking that the bench review its previous order that refused to direct the Mumbai University to cancel his Bachelor of Engineering degree.

The bench said while it “sympathised” with Patil, he must either reconcile his guilt or approach the Supreme Court for relief.

As per the plea, Patil, a resident of Jalgaon, graduated as an engineer in 2011. However, he flunked his maths II paper in the first year and “on his friends’ advice, paid an agent around Rs 20,000 to help get a fake pass certificate for the mathematics paper”. Patil claimed that he never cheated or used fraudulent means ever again and completed his engineering degree successfully after that.

Patil claimed that he never cheated or used fraudulent means ever again and completed his engineering degree successfully after that. However, he said he eventually slipped into severe depression. His worried parents sought psychiatric treatment for him and he was put on a course of anti-depressants but to no avail.

On Thursday, the bench suggested that he seek further medical help. “Try forgetting what happened, we have full sympathy for you,” said Justice Kemkar while turning down Patil’s plea.