Plea against denial of scholarship for students

CHENNAI: A PIL petition has been filed in the Madras High Court, to quash a Note of the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, which disentitled payment of scholarship to SC/ST students of management quota and consequently to confirm the applicability of scholarship scheme for them from the academic year 2018-19 onwards, under the Post Matric Scholarship Scheme April, 2018.

A division bench of Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad, before which the PIL petition from S Subbiah, a retired IAS officer, came up for hearing on Thursday, ordered notice to the authorities concerned, returnable in two weeks.

The petitioner’s senior advocate K Doraisamy contended that the Note in para VI (iii) (a) of the Post Matric Scholarship Scheme April 2018, and the consequential order of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment dated June 11, 2019, is causing grave prejudice and hardship to the students.