Scholarship row: Delhi HC asks Centre to pay student Rs 50,000

NEW DELHI: Delhi high court has directed the Centre to pay within eight weeks Rs 50,000 to a Delhi University student for denying him the third installment of an annual scholarship offered to him by the department of science and technology under its INSPIRE scheme.
The court also ordered the central government to release the third installment of Rs 60,000 to the student with an interest of 6% per annum.
"In the overall facts and circumstances of the case, considering that the annual scholarship for the petitioner was Rs 60,000, the third year's scholarship amount i.e. Rs 60,000 along with the simple interest of 6% is directed to be released to the petitioner. In addition, costs are also awarded to the petitioner to the tune of Rs 50,000. The amounts shall be released within a period of eight weeks," stated the bench of Justice Pratibha M Singh in a recent order.
The department, functioning under the Union ministry of science and technology, had offered the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) scholarship to the student in January 2017. To be eligible for it, students ought to be in the top 1% of their respective boards in Class 12.
The student, who belonged to an economically weaker section, was disbursed the scholarship amount for the first two years, but his scholarship was withheld for the third year.
The Centre claimed that to remain eligible under the scheme, the student's CGPA should be at least 6.0 in the core subjects. The court rejected the Centre's stand and observed that the guidelines left no doubt that the requirement of 6.0 CGPA was in the aggregate and not in the core subjects.
The transcripts of the student show that his CGPA for the first and the second semester was 7.45 and for the third and fourth semesters was 6.32, which was above the required threshold, it added.