Man wants HC to revoke his 'unfair' degree, told to move on

Feeling guilty of securing his BE degree through unfair means, a 26-year-old man moved the Bombay High Court to get his engineering degree revoked, but was told instead to forget the episode and "move on" with life.

A bench of justices S M Kemkar and M S Karnik rejected a guilt-conscious Vaibhav Patil's plea today once again after doing the same in October 2016 when it had dismissed his same plea simply because there was no law to scrap an educational qualification for securing it through unfair means.

Patil had sought directions to the University of Mumbai to cancel his Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree on the ground that he had resorted to cheating in his examinations.
 

But the high court had on October 4, 2016, had rejected Patil's petition, concluding that there was no provision in the University Act which allowed such cancellations.

Patil then filed a review application which came up for hearing before the same bench.

"We have full sympathy with you. Try to forget all this and move on with your life. You committed a mistake so many years ago and continued with it till now. What problem do you face now?" asked an exasperated Justice Kemkar.

Patil told the court that he was not able to get over the guilt. "I have not even taken up a job since then. I approached the University in 2012 itself requesting them to revoke my graduation degree but they did not accept," Patil said.

He added he even met several psychiatrists who just gave him medicines and ask him to not come back.

The court, however, said its hands were tied legally and said if Patil wants, he can approach the Supreme Court to challenge their order.

Patil, who hails from Jalgaon, completed his engineering course with IT specialisation in 2011. He had flunked his Maths II paper in the first year, and on his friend's advice, he allegedly paid an agent around Rs 20,000 to clear the subject.

The court also asked Patil today that if he wishes so, he could give details of the agent, examiner or officials, who helped him pass the examination, to the university to enquire into the matter.