In response to criticism from the High Court, Maharashtra government extends scholarship to Scheduled Caste student

Following pressure from the High Court, Maharashtra government finally extends scholarship to 22-year-old Scheduled Caste (SC) student, enabling their pursuit of a postgraduate course at the University of Michigan.

After being pulled up by the Bombay High Court, the Maharashtra government has granted a scholarship to a 22-year-old student from Nashik who had secured admission to the University of Michigan in the College of Engineering for the course of a Master’s of Engineering in the Space Engineering Programme in Climate and Space Science.

Pratik Patil belongs to a caste which is notified as Scheduled Caste (SC) in Maharashtra. In May 2023, the Maharashtra government came up with an advertisement for the Rajashree Shahu Maharaj Scholarship Scheme for students belonging to SC for Master’s education in foreign countries.

When Patil came across the advertisement, he applied for it. He had studied aerospace engineering from Nashik and the college had not yet released the final year results by the time the due date was announced by the authority.