Full Judgment Text
2026 INSC 13
NON-REPORTABLE
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CIVIL APPEAL NO. OF 2026
( Arising out of SLP(CIVIL) NO. 15180 OF 2025 )
PRATIMA DAS … APPELLANT(S)
VERSUS
STATE OF HIMACHAL
PRADESH AND ORS. …RESPONDENT(S)
J U D G M E N T
AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH, J.
1. Leave granted.
2. The Appellant has preferred this appeal
th
seeking release of her marksheets of the 5 to
th
10 semester and degree in law having
graduated from Manav Bharti University
(hereinafter “MB University”) on completion of
the BA.LLB programme batch of 2017-2022.
Signature Not Verified
Digitally signed by
RAJNI MUKHI
Date: 2026.01.06
15:22:51 IST
Reason:
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 1 of 12
3. The Appellant took admission in MB University
under the Admission no. R17BALLB0033 and
Registration No.MBU-2017-0536 for the
session batch of 2017-2022 and was issued a
Bonafide Certificate dated 30.08.2017 in this
regard.
4. On registration of a First Information Report,
an investigation ensued against MB University
on the allegation of sale of fake degrees. A
Special Investigation Team was set up which
seized the complete records of MB University in
the year 2019. Since the matter was pending
adjudication before the Court of Additional
District and Sessions Judge, Solan, the
students of the University, including the
Appellant, were suffering, as they were unable
to procure their academic documents. This
resulted in grave prejudice and hardship due
to inability to pursue their further academic
career and adversely affected future
professional prospects after graduation. The
Appellant was only issued marksheets for the
first four semesters.
5. Aggrieved by the inability of MB University to
release such documents, for the reasons as
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 2 of 12
stated above, students from different
departments of batches of 2019, 2020 and
2021 jointly wrote a letter to the Chief Justice
of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh
highlighting their grievances and frustrations.
The said letter was ordered by the Court to be
registered as a Public Interest Litigation and
numbered as CWPIL No.22 of 2022.
6. In order to address the grievance of the
students, the High Court of Himachal Pradesh,
proceeded to direct MB University to constitute
a committee for the purpose of verification and
release of the photocopies of the relevant
documents of the students. Certain parameters
and criteria were set out for supplying these
documents, i.e.; whether the courses in which
the students were found registered were duly
approved by the UGC and within the allotted
seats for MB University; whether the record of
the student found reflected in the Green
register and Admission disclosure; whether the
data had been sent for the session for which
the student was enrolled, and whether the
record of the examination reflects the entry of
the student along with the above parameters. It
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 3 of 12
was further observed that students whose
admission and registration year would be
disputed would not be considered for supply of
documents.
7. When the Appellant herein approached MB
University for procuring her documents, she
was informed that though she was found to be
enrolled in the green register under admission
no. R17BALL0033, her name was not reflected
in the admission disclosure list for the session
2017-2018. Instead, the name of one Mr.
Ayaan Narwal was mentioned against her
admission number. Due to such
circumstances, her documents could not be
issued to her.
8. Aggrieved by the non-acceptance of her request
for supply of documents, the Appellant
approached the High Court by filing CWP
No.1480/2024, which was disposed of with a
direction to the custodian of the records to
decide her case after giving her an opportunity
of being heard. The Appellant, in pursuance
thereto, submitted representation to the
Superintendent of Police, Solan, Himachal
Pradesh, who had the custody of the records of
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 4 of 12
MB University, for issuance of her unsupplied
marksheets. This was rejected on the ground
that her name did not reflect in the admission
disclosure list.
9. The Appellant, once again approached the High
Court by filing CWP No. 6075 of 2024, which
was withdrawn with liberty to avail of the
appropriate remedy. In the meanwhile, an
interim order was passed in the pending Public
Interest Litigation i.e., CWPIL No.22 of 2022
directing the Registrar of the University to
provide the green register and disclosure list to
the students to enable them to verify the same.
She also filed an impleadment application in
the PIL which came to be allowed. The
Appellant, being similarly placed as the
petitioners in the PIL, visited MB University,
where she was handed over copy of the green
register.
10. Based on such inspection by the students, MB
University placed on record status of each of
the petitioners in a tabulated form. In the
affidavit filed before the Court, it was stated by
the Registrar of the University that 34 students
visited the University for verification of their
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 5 of 12
records, where several discrepancies had come
to light. Which was disputed by the petitioners
to the PIL on facts and records.
11. The PIL, ultimately came to be disposed of by
the Court by observing that it was not in a
position to determine such disputed questions
of facts and it would be open to the students to
approach the competent court of jurisdiction
for redressal of their grievances vide order
dated 20.12.2024.
12. The Appellant has approached this Court
impugning the above order dated 20.12.2024
passed by the High Court aggrieved by her
inability in securing her documents despite the
delay of more than two years in court.
13. The learned counsel for the Appellant has
submitted that the Appellant has passed all
semester-wise examinations and has the
attendance list which shows this. The name of
the Appellant is also reflected in the green
sheet register. It was the duty of MB University
and other concerned authorities to include her
name in the Admission Disclosure list on
which she had no control. The Appellant had
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 6 of 12
diligently followed up with MB University on
numerous occasions for handing over of the
documents but the same was denied to her
assigning reasons which were frivolous and are
not attributable to her. Furthermore, the PIL
was kept pending for more than two and half
years and the petitioners therein have been left
to further fend on their own by relegating them
to avail remedies before a competent court.
14. It has been submitted that in the absence of
the relevant documents, the Appellant has not
been able to enroll herself in the Bar Council,
pursue higher education, or sit for any
competitive examinations. Non-supply of
documents has put her career at stake and
such grave prejudice has been caused for no
fault of hers.
15. The learned counsel for the Respondent-State
and the Director General of Police have
submitted that the documents of the Appellant
could not be verified due to incomplete records.
The role assigned to the Document Verification
Committee was confined to the extent of
verification and supplying of documents and
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 7 of 12
they could not create, alter or correct any of
the documents of the University.
16. The affidavits filed by MB University in
pursuance to the orders passed by this Court
in the present case made it amply clear that
the University acknowledged the factum of
mistake having occurred at their end while
preparing the admission disclosure list wherein
the name of the Appellant was not mentioned,
instead the name of another student was
mentioned and therefore, the respondent-
University was called upon to specifically file
an affidavit detailing the clear and complete
facts.
17. In compliance thereto, an additional affidavit
dated 03.12.2025 has been filed by the
Registrar, MB University, where in paras 3 to 9
it has been stated as follows:-
“3. The Respondent No.3, i.e., Manav
Bharti University (MBU) was established,
incorporate, and is regulated under the
Manav Bharti University (Establishment &
Regulation) Act, 2009, duly enacted by the
Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly,
receiving the assent of the Hon’ble Governor
on 22.09.2009. The University is duly
recognized by the University Grants
Commission (UGC) under Section 22 of the
UGC Act, 1956, and all courses offered by
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 8 of 12
the University are duly approved and
recognized.
4. That, it is submitted on the behalf of the
Respondent No.3 that before registration of
F.I.R. against the Manav Bharti University,
it’s administration was controlled by Manav
Bharti Charitable Trust, but now the
administration is controlled by H.P.
Government.
5. That as per the allocated seats and
admission process of the University, the
Petitioner took admission in the B.A. LL.B. (5-
year) Course with Respondent No.3 under
Admission No.R17BALLB0033 and
Registration No.MBU-2017-0536 for the
Academic Session 2017-2022.
6. That the Petitioner has pursued and
st
cleared the examinations from 1 Semester
th
to 10 Semester, and the Detailed Marks
st th
Certificate (DMCs) for the 1 to 4 Semesters
have already been issued to her in the
normal course of University functioning.
7. That the name of the Petitioner is duly
reflected in the University’s Green Sheet
Register/Admission Register, which is the
primary internal record maintained by the
University. However, due to a clerical and
inadvertent human error, by the previous
administration of the University Petitioner’s
name was not included in the admission
disclosure list sent to the HP-PERC, and
instead, the name of one Mr. Ayaan Narwal
was mistakenly forwarded.
8. That the as per University records, Mr.
Ayaan Narwal had independently taken
admission in the B.A. LL.B Course under
Admission No.R16BALLB0047 and
Registration No. MBU-2016-0414 for the
academic session 2016-2021, and therefore,
his inclusion in place of the Petitioner was a
clerical mismatch and not a substitution or
deletion of the Petitioner’s actual admission.
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 9 of 12
9. That it is respectfully submitted that
the aforesaid mistake done by previous
administration was purely inadvertent,
unintentional, and bona fide, without any
element of mala fide, manipulation, or
suppression. The University has
consistently maintained the Petitioner’s
academic records, internal registers,
examination entries, and result data, thereby
proving that she was a bona fide student
throughout.”
18. As is evident from the above-quoted portion of
the affidavit, MB University has admitted that
the Appellant had taken admission in the
BA.LLB course with admission
no.R17BALLB0033 and Registration No.MBU-
2017-0536 for the Academic Session 2017-
2022 and has cleared all semester-wise
examinations. Detailed Marks Certificates for
st th
the 1 to 4 semester were issued in the
normal course of University functioning. It has
affirmed that the name of the Appellant is duly
reflected in the University's Green Register,
which is the primary internal record
maintained by the University. However, due to
a clerical and inadvertent error, the name of
the Appellant was not included in the
admission disclosure list sent to the committee
and the name of one Mr. Ayaan Narwal was
mistakenly forwarded.
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 10 of 12
19. It has further been brought on record in the
above affidavit that Mr. Ayaan Narwal had
taken admission in the BA.LLB Course under
Admission No.R16BALLB0047 for the academic
session 2016-2021. Inclusion of his name in
place of the name of the Appellant was a
clerical mismatch and not a substitution or
deletion of the Appellant’s actual admission.
20. From the above affidavit and documents on
record, it is undisputed that the Appellant has
been a bona fide student of MB University and
had cleared all her examinations. It is also
evident that the exclusion of the name of the
Appellant in the admission disclosure list has
occurred due to no fault on part of the
Appellant, rather the same is at the hands of
the University for which the Appellant cannot
be made to suffer.
21. Having regard to the above established facts
based on records, we are of the view that the
Appellant has been deprived of her documents
for no fault of hers for a substantial period of
time and relegating her to another court of
competent jurisdiction as observed by the High
Court vide the impugned order dated
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 11 of 12
20.12.2024 would no more be required as
there is no factual dispute left.
22. In view of the above, the appeal is allowed and
MB University is directed to issue the
th th
marksheets of 5 to 10 semester, the degree
and any other relevant documents, if any, to
the Appellant within four weeks from today.
23. Pending application(s), if any, shall stand
disposed of.
.……..………..……………………..J.
[ VIKRAM NATH ]
.……..………..……………………..J.
[ AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH ]
NEW DELHI;
JANUARY 06, 2026.
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 12 of 12
NON-REPORTABLE
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CIVIL APPEAL NO. OF 2026
( Arising out of SLP(CIVIL) NO. 15180 OF 2025 )
PRATIMA DAS … APPELLANT(S)
VERSUS
STATE OF HIMACHAL
PRADESH AND ORS. …RESPONDENT(S)
J U D G M E N T
AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH, J.
1. Leave granted.
2. The Appellant has preferred this appeal
th
seeking release of her marksheets of the 5 to
th
10 semester and degree in law having
graduated from Manav Bharti University
(hereinafter “MB University”) on completion of
the BA.LLB programme batch of 2017-2022.
Signature Not Verified
Digitally signed by
RAJNI MUKHI
Date: 2026.01.06
15:22:51 IST
Reason:
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 1 of 12
3. The Appellant took admission in MB University
under the Admission no. R17BALLB0033 and
Registration No.MBU-2017-0536 for the
session batch of 2017-2022 and was issued a
Bonafide Certificate dated 30.08.2017 in this
regard.
4. On registration of a First Information Report,
an investigation ensued against MB University
on the allegation of sale of fake degrees. A
Special Investigation Team was set up which
seized the complete records of MB University in
the year 2019. Since the matter was pending
adjudication before the Court of Additional
District and Sessions Judge, Solan, the
students of the University, including the
Appellant, were suffering, as they were unable
to procure their academic documents. This
resulted in grave prejudice and hardship due
to inability to pursue their further academic
career and adversely affected future
professional prospects after graduation. The
Appellant was only issued marksheets for the
first four semesters.
5. Aggrieved by the inability of MB University to
release such documents, for the reasons as
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 2 of 12
stated above, students from different
departments of batches of 2019, 2020 and
2021 jointly wrote a letter to the Chief Justice
of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh
highlighting their grievances and frustrations.
The said letter was ordered by the Court to be
registered as a Public Interest Litigation and
numbered as CWPIL No.22 of 2022.
6. In order to address the grievance of the
students, the High Court of Himachal Pradesh,
proceeded to direct MB University to constitute
a committee for the purpose of verification and
release of the photocopies of the relevant
documents of the students. Certain parameters
and criteria were set out for supplying these
documents, i.e.; whether the courses in which
the students were found registered were duly
approved by the UGC and within the allotted
seats for MB University; whether the record of
the student found reflected in the Green
register and Admission disclosure; whether the
data had been sent for the session for which
the student was enrolled, and whether the
record of the examination reflects the entry of
the student along with the above parameters. It
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 3 of 12
was further observed that students whose
admission and registration year would be
disputed would not be considered for supply of
documents.
7. When the Appellant herein approached MB
University for procuring her documents, she
was informed that though she was found to be
enrolled in the green register under admission
no. R17BALL0033, her name was not reflected
in the admission disclosure list for the session
2017-2018. Instead, the name of one Mr.
Ayaan Narwal was mentioned against her
admission number. Due to such
circumstances, her documents could not be
issued to her.
8. Aggrieved by the non-acceptance of her request
for supply of documents, the Appellant
approached the High Court by filing CWP
No.1480/2024, which was disposed of with a
direction to the custodian of the records to
decide her case after giving her an opportunity
of being heard. The Appellant, in pursuance
thereto, submitted representation to the
Superintendent of Police, Solan, Himachal
Pradesh, who had the custody of the records of
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 4 of 12
MB University, for issuance of her unsupplied
marksheets. This was rejected on the ground
that her name did not reflect in the admission
disclosure list.
9. The Appellant, once again approached the High
Court by filing CWP No. 6075 of 2024, which
was withdrawn with liberty to avail of the
appropriate remedy. In the meanwhile, an
interim order was passed in the pending Public
Interest Litigation i.e., CWPIL No.22 of 2022
directing the Registrar of the University to
provide the green register and disclosure list to
the students to enable them to verify the same.
She also filed an impleadment application in
the PIL which came to be allowed. The
Appellant, being similarly placed as the
petitioners in the PIL, visited MB University,
where she was handed over copy of the green
register.
10. Based on such inspection by the students, MB
University placed on record status of each of
the petitioners in a tabulated form. In the
affidavit filed before the Court, it was stated by
the Registrar of the University that 34 students
visited the University for verification of their
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 5 of 12
records, where several discrepancies had come
to light. Which was disputed by the petitioners
to the PIL on facts and records.
11. The PIL, ultimately came to be disposed of by
the Court by observing that it was not in a
position to determine such disputed questions
of facts and it would be open to the students to
approach the competent court of jurisdiction
for redressal of their grievances vide order
dated 20.12.2024.
12. The Appellant has approached this Court
impugning the above order dated 20.12.2024
passed by the High Court aggrieved by her
inability in securing her documents despite the
delay of more than two years in court.
13. The learned counsel for the Appellant has
submitted that the Appellant has passed all
semester-wise examinations and has the
attendance list which shows this. The name of
the Appellant is also reflected in the green
sheet register. It was the duty of MB University
and other concerned authorities to include her
name in the Admission Disclosure list on
which she had no control. The Appellant had
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 6 of 12
diligently followed up with MB University on
numerous occasions for handing over of the
documents but the same was denied to her
assigning reasons which were frivolous and are
not attributable to her. Furthermore, the PIL
was kept pending for more than two and half
years and the petitioners therein have been left
to further fend on their own by relegating them
to avail remedies before a competent court.
14. It has been submitted that in the absence of
the relevant documents, the Appellant has not
been able to enroll herself in the Bar Council,
pursue higher education, or sit for any
competitive examinations. Non-supply of
documents has put her career at stake and
such grave prejudice has been caused for no
fault of hers.
15. The learned counsel for the Respondent-State
and the Director General of Police have
submitted that the documents of the Appellant
could not be verified due to incomplete records.
The role assigned to the Document Verification
Committee was confined to the extent of
verification and supplying of documents and
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 7 of 12
they could not create, alter or correct any of
the documents of the University.
16. The affidavits filed by MB University in
pursuance to the orders passed by this Court
in the present case made it amply clear that
the University acknowledged the factum of
mistake having occurred at their end while
preparing the admission disclosure list wherein
the name of the Appellant was not mentioned,
instead the name of another student was
mentioned and therefore, the respondent-
University was called upon to specifically file
an affidavit detailing the clear and complete
facts.
17. In compliance thereto, an additional affidavit
dated 03.12.2025 has been filed by the
Registrar, MB University, where in paras 3 to 9
it has been stated as follows:-
“3. The Respondent No.3, i.e., Manav
Bharti University (MBU) was established,
incorporate, and is regulated under the
Manav Bharti University (Establishment &
Regulation) Act, 2009, duly enacted by the
Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly,
receiving the assent of the Hon’ble Governor
on 22.09.2009. The University is duly
recognized by the University Grants
Commission (UGC) under Section 22 of the
UGC Act, 1956, and all courses offered by
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 8 of 12
the University are duly approved and
recognized.
4. That, it is submitted on the behalf of the
Respondent No.3 that before registration of
F.I.R. against the Manav Bharti University,
it’s administration was controlled by Manav
Bharti Charitable Trust, but now the
administration is controlled by H.P.
Government.
5. That as per the allocated seats and
admission process of the University, the
Petitioner took admission in the B.A. LL.B. (5-
year) Course with Respondent No.3 under
Admission No.R17BALLB0033 and
Registration No.MBU-2017-0536 for the
Academic Session 2017-2022.
6. That the Petitioner has pursued and
st
cleared the examinations from 1 Semester
th
to 10 Semester, and the Detailed Marks
st th
Certificate (DMCs) for the 1 to 4 Semesters
have already been issued to her in the
normal course of University functioning.
7. That the name of the Petitioner is duly
reflected in the University’s Green Sheet
Register/Admission Register, which is the
primary internal record maintained by the
University. However, due to a clerical and
inadvertent human error, by the previous
administration of the University Petitioner’s
name was not included in the admission
disclosure list sent to the HP-PERC, and
instead, the name of one Mr. Ayaan Narwal
was mistakenly forwarded.
8. That the as per University records, Mr.
Ayaan Narwal had independently taken
admission in the B.A. LL.B Course under
Admission No.R16BALLB0047 and
Registration No. MBU-2016-0414 for the
academic session 2016-2021, and therefore,
his inclusion in place of the Petitioner was a
clerical mismatch and not a substitution or
deletion of the Petitioner’s actual admission.
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 9 of 12
9. That it is respectfully submitted that
the aforesaid mistake done by previous
administration was purely inadvertent,
unintentional, and bona fide, without any
element of mala fide, manipulation, or
suppression. The University has
consistently maintained the Petitioner’s
academic records, internal registers,
examination entries, and result data, thereby
proving that she was a bona fide student
throughout.”
18. As is evident from the above-quoted portion of
the affidavit, MB University has admitted that
the Appellant had taken admission in the
BA.LLB course with admission
no.R17BALLB0033 and Registration No.MBU-
2017-0536 for the Academic Session 2017-
2022 and has cleared all semester-wise
examinations. Detailed Marks Certificates for
st th
the 1 to 4 semester were issued in the
normal course of University functioning. It has
affirmed that the name of the Appellant is duly
reflected in the University's Green Register,
which is the primary internal record
maintained by the University. However, due to
a clerical and inadvertent error, the name of
the Appellant was not included in the
admission disclosure list sent to the committee
and the name of one Mr. Ayaan Narwal was
mistakenly forwarded.
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 10 of 12
19. It has further been brought on record in the
above affidavit that Mr. Ayaan Narwal had
taken admission in the BA.LLB Course under
Admission No.R16BALLB0047 for the academic
session 2016-2021. Inclusion of his name in
place of the name of the Appellant was a
clerical mismatch and not a substitution or
deletion of the Appellant’s actual admission.
20. From the above affidavit and documents on
record, it is undisputed that the Appellant has
been a bona fide student of MB University and
had cleared all her examinations. It is also
evident that the exclusion of the name of the
Appellant in the admission disclosure list has
occurred due to no fault on part of the
Appellant, rather the same is at the hands of
the University for which the Appellant cannot
be made to suffer.
21. Having regard to the above established facts
based on records, we are of the view that the
Appellant has been deprived of her documents
for no fault of hers for a substantial period of
time and relegating her to another court of
competent jurisdiction as observed by the High
Court vide the impugned order dated
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 11 of 12
20.12.2024 would no more be required as
there is no factual dispute left.
22. In view of the above, the appeal is allowed and
MB University is directed to issue the
th th
marksheets of 5 to 10 semester, the degree
and any other relevant documents, if any, to
the Appellant within four weeks from today.
23. Pending application(s), if any, shall stand
disposed of.
.……..………..……………………..J.
[ VIKRAM NATH ]
.……..………..……………………..J.
[ AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH ]
NEW DELHI;
JANUARY 06, 2026.
C. A. No. …….of 2026 @ SLP (C) No.15180 of 2025 Page 12 of 12