Pune: The Bombay high court on Monday directed Savitribai Phule Pune University to accept the examination forms and allow 771 students from its affiliated engineering colleges in Pune, Ahilyanagar and Nashik to appear for the third and fourth year examinations starting May 20.“All these students had secured provisional admission to third/fourth year in July 2025 when the Phule Pune University (SPPU)’s Circular 209, based on the state’s GR of Feb 2025 declaring the ‘carry on’ policy, was operative,” advocate Pooja Thorat, representing 751 of the 771 students, told TOI.The policy enabled a student, who failed in first- or second-year subjects, to secure admission in the first semester of the third or fourth year, as the case may be. “The students in the instant matter cleared their first/second year backlog subjects, but were still denied appearance in the impending exams,” Thorat said.In an interim order, a vacation bench of Justice Gautam Ankhad and Justice Sandesh Patil said the appearance and declaration of results of these students shall be subject to the final outcome of a writ petition on the legality and applicability of the state’s ‘Carry On’ system.The HC directed the university and colleges to complete the verification of marksheets and eligibility credentials of these students “within 24hrs from the uploading of this order so as to ensure that eligible students are able to appear for the examinations commencing from 20th May 2026”.In Feb 2025, the state issued a govt resolution (GR) introducing the ‘carry on’ policy for failed students. The SPPU issued Circular 209 based on this GR. A Pune student, who had failed in FYLLB exams, approached HC seeking benefit of the SPPU circular. On Sept 9, the court declined to grant him relief and expressed “shock and surprise” over the SPPU circular to promote failed students from first year to third year.The court appointed an amicus curae (friend of the court) on the issue of legality and applicability of the ‘carry on’ policy and asked all non-agricultural state universities to file affidavits. This matter is posted for hearing on June 12.Advocates Thorat, Ajit Anekar, Janam Sonpal and Tukaram Shendge, representing the students brought to the notice of the bench that the HC has passed orders on April 6, 27 and on May 7 whereby similarly situated students were permitted to fill up examination forms and appear for the third/fourth year examinations, subject to the outcome of the pending writ petition.The bench referred to the Nov 11, 2025, HC order that had made an exception for those students who were already given the benefit of Circular 209 and also referred to the April 27, 2026 and May 7, 2026, orders. It said, “Considering the above orders and considering that the larger issue concerning the validity and operation of the ‘carry on’ system is pending adjudication before this court, we are of the prima facie view that the applicants deserve interim protection, so as to avoid academic prejudice at this stage.”
