Elgar Parishad case accused Mahesh receives High Court nod to pursue law course

The Bombay High Court has allowed Mahesh Raut, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case, to take admission to the three-year LLB course at Siddharth Law College in Mumbai for the batch of 2024-2027.
A bench comprising Justices AS Gadkari and Neela K Gokhale, on being informed that Raut had cleared the state law Common Entrance Test (CET), said, “Imprisonment does not restrict an individual’s right to pursue further education. Denying the opportunity to take admission to the college despite a seat being allotted is a violation of the fundamental right of the petitioner.”
Raut was provisionally allotted a seat on the payment of fees by his sister after he cleared the entrance test. However, he was unable to appear for the institutional round as it required him to be physically present at the college premises for the verification of documents.
“Since the college requires physical presence of a candidate for verification of documents, we leave it to the college to consider permitting the authorised representative/next of kin to the petitioner to physically attend the college and verify the documents or in the alternative, to take the signature of the petitioner on the documents from the Taloja Central Prison,” the court observed.
The court, however, did not grant any other exemption to Raut and stated he would abide by all rules and regulations like other students. The bench observed that the college was at liberty to disallow him to appear for examinations if he failed to satisfy the minimum attendance criteria or any other eligibility criteria.
Notably, Mahesh Raut was arrested in 2018 in the case pertaining to the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, during which provocative speeches were raised that allegedly led to rioting on January 1, 2018, at Bhima Koregaon war memorial. At least 1 person was killed, and several others were injured in the violence.
Raut, who is the youngest accused in the case, was granted bail last year, but it was put on hold by the High Court, following which an appeal was made in the Supreme Court.