JUDGMENT :

NITIN JAMDAR, J.

1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Respondents waive service. Taken up for final disposal.

2. The Petitioner SVKM’s Mithibai College is granted a status of an Autonomous Educational Institute by the University Grants Commission. The Respondents-Mumbai University, by the impugned communications, has refused to issue degree certificates to the batch of students for the year 2019-20 and some students out of the batch of 2018-19 on the ground that though the Petitioner- College can have its own grading system, it was not entitled to change the grading system of the course which has commenced before the grant of autonomous status, mid-way and it should introduce it from the first year. Being aggrieved by the action of the University withholding the issuance of degree certificates and for a direction to the University to issue the certificates, the Petitioners have filed the present Petition contending that assessment of students is the prerogative of the autonomous college and there is no such embargo in law that the Petitioner College has to introduce the grading system from a particular point in time.

3. The University Grants Commission is entitled to con