National Institute Of ... vs Chandra Shekhar Chaudhary

The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Jharkhand High Court, which dismissed the Letters Patent Appeal challenging the denial of permission to the respondent, an Associate Professor, to pursue a Ph.D. at IIT Madras. The Court noted that the refusal was based on the administrative norms that required maintaining a minimum staff strength of 70%, which was not consistently applied. The Court emphasized that the appellant's action was arbitrary and discriminatory, thus ruling in favor of the respondent's right to pursue further education under Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to education.