Himachal Pradesh High Court– While deciding a writ petition wherein the petitioner was denied scholarship for higher education under the scheme launched by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India under Ministry of Science and Technology, called “INSPIRE” valued at Rs. 80,000/- per year, the bench comprising of Rajiv Sharma and Sureshwar Thakur JJ, allowed the petition and directed respondent no. 1 to release the scholarship to the petitioner within a period of six weeks from today with interest @ 9% per annum. The Court further observed that the approach of the respondents in the instant case was unreasonable and arbitrary and the purpose of the scheme is to help the students to pursue natural or basic sciences at B.Sc., B.Sc. (Hons), Int. M.Sc. or MS programmes, being specialized courses.
In the instant case the petitioner passed her 10+2 and scored 81.4% marks. The petitioner was informed that she was eligible for scholarship for higher education under the scheme “INSPIRE” and was asked to complete all the formalities and submit the documents by 31.7.2012. The case of the petitioner was not processed even after submission of the documents on the required date. The contention forwarded by respondent 2 was that the present case was not covered under the Ministry of Human Resource Development guidelines (Annexure R-2/1).
The court after perusal of facts stated that the respondents have failed to take into account the difference between “INSPIRE” scholarship and “Central Sector Scheme of Scholarship for College and University Students” by MHRD as both operate in different fields and the case of the petitioner is covered under “INSPIRE”. Pooja Sharma v. Union of India, 2015 SCC OnLine HP 1352, decided on 19.3.2015
