Himachal Pradesh High Court
Parmod Kumar & Others vs State Of Himachal Pradesh & Others on 27 August, 2019
Bench: V. Ramasubramanian, Anoop Chitkara
IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHIMLA
CWP No. 2941 of 2018-E
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Date of Decision : August 27 , 2019
Parmod Kumar & others ....Petitioners
Versus
State of Himachal Pradesh & others ...Respondents
Coram:
The Hon'ble Mr. Justice V. Ramasubramanian, Chief Justice.
The Hon'ble Mr. Justice Anoop Chitkara, Judge.
Whether approved for reporting?1
For the petitioners :Mr. Servedaman Rathore, Advocate.
For the respondents : Mr. Ashok Sharma, Advocate General with
M/s Ranjan Sharma, Ritta Goswami,
Adarsh Sharma, Ashwani Sharma & Nand
Lal Thakur, Additional Advocates General,
for respondents No. 1, 2 and 4.
Mr. Rajesh Kumar Sharma, Assistant
Solicitor General of India, for respondent
No. 3.
Mr. Aniket Chauhan, Advocate, for
respondent No. 5.
V. Ramasubramanian , Chief Justice. (Oral)
Aggrieved by the refusal of the 5 th respondent to release the degree certificates, on the ground that the Post-
Matric Scholarships payable by the State Government on behalf of the students has not been released to the Educational Institution, the students who completed their 1 Whether reporters of Local Papers may be allowed to see the judgment?
::: Downloaded on - 29/09/2019 02:40:09 :::HCHP 2degree courses during the academic years 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 have come up with the above writ petition.
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2. Heard Mr. Servedaman Rathore, learned Counsel for the petitioners, Mr. Ashwani K. Sharma, learned Additional Advocate General for respondents No. 1, 2 & 4, Mr. Rajesh Kumar Sharma, learned Assistant Solicitor General of India for respondent No. 3 and Mr. Aniket Chauhan, learned counsel for respondent No. 5.
3.
r to The grievance, in brief, of the petitioners is that they joined the degree courses in the 5th respondent - Institution and completed their degree courses successfully in three different academic years namely 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-
16. However, the degree certificates are not released by the 5th respondent on the short ground that the amount payable by the State Government under the Scheme known as the "Post-Matric Scholarship for OBC Students for studying in India", has not been released to the 5th respondent.
4. It appears that the Government originally took a stand that there were no sufficient funds. Subsequently, the Government has taken a stand that the codal formalities are not completed.
::: Downloaded on - 29/09/2019 02:40:09 :::HCHP 35. Irrespective of whether money payable by the Government is released to the 5 th respondent or not, the 5th .
respondent has no right to withhold the certificates relating to the educational qualifications of the students. The certificates of the students, relating to their educational qualifications, are their properties over which the Educational Institutions cannot claim either a special lien except in accordance with the terms of a contract or general lien in terms of the provisions of Section 172 of the Contract Act, 1872. No institution has a right to withhold the degree certificate of any student on the ground that payment is not made, unless there is an obligation cast upon the students under a contract.
6. Therefore, the writ petition is disposed of with a direction to the 5th respondent to release the degree certificates of the petitioners within two weeks. It is open to the 5 th respondent to take up the matter as against the other respondents for release of the payments.
Pending applications, if any, also stand disposed of accordingly.
(V. Ramasubramanian), Chief Justice.
(Anoop Chitkara), Judge.
August 27 , 2019 (PK)
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