Nationalized banks cannot deny education loan to students obtaining less marks

No bank can deny educational loan if the SC/ST and MBC categories student have obtained minimum 35 per cent marks.

S Maran, belonging to SC community, had filed a writ petition before Madras High Court as the branch manager of the State Bank of Travancore in Mogappair had refused the educational loan on the ground that he had not obtained the minimum mark of 45 per cent.

In the ruling given in the favor of writ petitioner S Maran, Justice D Hariparanthaman said if the court accepts the bank argument then in Tamil Nadu, except the general category student, students belonging to SC/ST and MBC categories will not get admission in BE courses who have not obtained minimum 45 per cent marks. However, the government has prescribed only 35 per cent for admission to SC/ST students. Such prescription of lower marks for SC/ST students was done in order to achieve the objective of the constitutional goal set out in Article 46 of the Constitution. As per bank argument the very purpose of the educational loan will get defeated.

The judge said if such an (rejection) attitude was adopted for Dr BR Ambedkar, then he could have also not been able to go for higher education as he had obtained only 287 marks out of 750 in the matric exam. The judge pointed out, but the King of Baroda showed his kindness and extended financial assistance to him.

The Central government has also introduced a scheme to provide financial assistance to the weaker sections of society for their education. The judge said, it is very unfortunate that the respondent bank was denying the same citing giving one reason to another. Hence, the judge directed the bank to give the loan to the petitioner within four weeks. The judge also directed the bank to sanction the loan for the subsequent years also.