The bench had been apprised of the numerous problems confronting B Pharm students in various universities in the state ever since the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) was set up last year. The bench was hearing three petitions filed by students of the University of Mumbai who had failed in the recent B Pharm exams through no fault of theirs.

Advocate V A Thorat pleading their case argued that the state had not been able to decide on the syllabus of these students, who had been admitted to colleges originally affiliated to various universities in the state, including Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad. All these students had studied under the individual universities with their individual syllabi from June 1998 to September 1998.However, once the MUHS was set up, the principals of these colleges were sent circulars by the Nashik-based university in December 1998 directing that a new syllabi would be dispatched in due course and were given a ``teaching pattern'' for their present syllabi.

The new syllabi, however, arrived only in March 1999, introducing four new subjects. Obviously, the students were not prepared to take examinations under this new syllabi and in the examinations held in July 1999, of the 2,450 students who appeared, 1,860 students had failed. Representations by students and principals to the MUHS, seeking at least an ATKT scheme (which was present in the individual universities but is absent under the MUHS) however failed to bring any result. Hence they approached the Bombay High Court. While three petitions have been filed before the Bombay bench, another bunch of three petitions have been filed before the Nagpur and Aurangabad benches.

After hearing the petitions, the chief justice told state government pleaderR V Govilkar that the state needs to find a solution to the problem and asked him to sit down with the department and file an affidavit. The affidavit is to be filed by September 23 while the matter is to come up for further hearing on September 28. The petitions before the various other benches will be transferred to the chief justice's bench in time for the next hearing.