CHENNAI: Educational loan cannot be denied to a student on the sole ground that his admission is under management quota, the Madras high court has held. 
Justice M Jaichandren, passing orders on a writ petition filed by J Pandiarajan last week, referred to an earlier order of the court which conclusively held that once eligibility for admission is established and a candidate is selected through a an approved mode of selection and his admission too is approved by the university, then banks cannot refuse loan facility to the student. 

Pandiarajan joined the mechanical engineering course in a private university and approached the Indian Overseas Bank for educational loan. It was refused on the ground that he had been admitted under the management quota. He then moved the court, citing an earlier case involving the Karur Vysya Bank. 

In that case, the court had said that a student selected and admitted under the management quota cannot be a denied educational loan. Noting that the bank's contention was not that the student was not eligible for admission to BE course, the court said: "The central government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued guidelines to banks to sanction education loan to all deserving candidates. The requirements the banks can insist upon is whether the candidate is eligible to be admitted in the course, whether the course is approved by the competent body, and whether the college is affiliated to the university which conducts examinations." 

The judge said if the bank's stand is accepted, no student admitted under the management quota in any private self-financing college will be in a position to get education loan, which will defeat the purpose for which the Union government and RBI introduced the scheme.