Inequality among graduates with similar degrees

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The petitioner was deprived of graduate voter registration due to the denial of online voter registration on the portal.

Following a petition filed in this regard, Justice Mehroz K. Pathan of the vacation bench of the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court ordered on Monday, that a notice be issued to the State Government and the election machinery. The next hearing on this petition will be held on January 19, 2026.

Students of the five-year integrated course, who started their education in the same year, have the same educational qualifications as those who completed a three-year course.

Despite this, the petitioner, Aniket Rajendrakumar Sawant, was deprived of voter registration.

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What is the petition about?

Petitioner adv Aniket Sawant completed a five-year (dual degree) BA-LL B 'integrated' course at the National Law University in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.

His entire five-year course was completed on May 9, 2024. After that, he obtained an LLM postgraduate degree and started practising law.

As per the notification of the voter registration system, when applying online for the Graduate Constituency, the applicant must have obtained their degree before November 1, 2022.

Since there is a condition that three years must have passed since he obtained his degree by 2025, Aniket cannot apply.

Other students of the three-year BA-LL.B. course received their degrees in 2022, while the petitioner received his degree in 2024. So, he received both the BA and LL.B. degrees simultaneously. He will only be able to fulfil the condition of having obtained the degree at least three years before registration in 2027. He is presenting their own side of the story.