Bombay HC pulls up Savitribai Phule Pune University for round permitting failed college students direct promotion

The Bombay High Court has expressed robust displeasure over a round issued by Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) that provisionally promotes college students who’ve failed in a number of semesters to greater years, terming the transfer “stunning” and “surprising.” 

A Division Bench of Justices Ravindra V. Ghuge and Ashwin D. Bhobe was listening to a writ petition filed by Amit Sahadev Harale, a first-year LL.B. pupil, who had challenged the denial of aid concerning his failure within the first yr. While declining to grant any aid to the petitioner, the courtroom took suo motu cognisance of the 2025 round, issued by the college below the signature of its Deputy Registrar. 

According to the round, college students who failed each semesters of the primary yr in October-November 2024 and April-May 2025 would nonetheless be provisionally admitted to the primary semester of the third yr. Similarly, college students failing within the second and third years may be granted provisional admission to the primary semesters of the fourth and fifth years respectively. 

Calling the coverage “past logic and cause,” the Bench noticed that permitting college students who’ve failed a complete educational yr to advance on to the third yr would undermine educational requirements. “It is past logic and cause as to why a pupil who has failed within the first yr ought to be granted admission to the third yr’s first semester. If that is the kind of rule being launched by the University, which carries the identify of an ideal and revered educationist, Smt. Savitribai Phule, it might not augur effectively for the educational excellence of scholars on this University,” the Bench stated in a September 9, 2025, order.  

The Bench famous that whereas most universities observe the Allowed To Keep Terms (ATKT) coverage, which allows provisional development supplied college students clear pending topics, SPPU’s round appeared to bypass these necessities fully. Finding the college’s place “unclear,” the courtroom directed the Vice-Chancellor of SPPU to file a private affidavit by September 18, 2025, explaining the circumstances below which the round was launched, the educational authorities that permitted it, and the main points of scholars who’ve already benefited from it. 

The courtroom has saved the petition pending and scheduled the following listening to for September 22, 2025. Additionally, it directed that if the petitioner’s father applies for permission to nominate a author in English for examinations, the college should consider the request and grant permission after following due process. 

“The courtroom is worried concerning the wider educational implications of such a rule and seeks accountability from the very best authorities of the college,” the order said.