JUDGMENT :

Heard Mr. M.H. Laskar, learned counsel appearing for the writ petitioner. Also heard Mr. A. Ganguli, learned standing counsel, Punjab National Bank (PNB) appearing for the respondent Nos. 1 and 2.

2. The petitioner herein has approached this Court being aggrieved by the refusal on the part of the respondent Nos. 1 and 2 to disburse the educational loan applied by him by contending that the stand of the Bank is arbitrary and discriminatory. It is the settled position that in matters of granting loan, the decision is entirely up to the Bank and in such matters, the Courts would ordinarily be very slow in interfering. However, in the present case what would be relevant for the Court to consider is whether, the stand of the Bank is arbitrary and discriminatory and if so, does the same have the potential of jeopardizing the educational future of the petitioner. In order to answer the aforesaid queries it would be necessary to briefly narrate the facts and circumstances of the case.

3. The writ petitioner herein claims that he belongs to the OBC community in Assam and he comes from a very poor family. The father of the petitioner is earning his livelihood as a tea garden labouror. The petitioner had passed his High School Leaving Certification (HSLC) examination conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, Assam (SEBA) in the year 2015 by securing 72.6% marks (1st Division) where-after, he had also completed his Higher Secondary (HS) examination in the Science stream, in the year 2018, securing 50% marks. It is the projected case in the writ petition that due to certain health issues faced by the petitioner at the relevant point of time, his performance in the HS examination was unsatisfactory, inasmuch as, the petitioner had to re-write as many as 04 papers under the improvement scheme. Upon completion of HS course, the petitioner had applied for admission in the Two Years Diploma course in Pharmacy (D.Pharma) under the “Shifa Pharmacist Institute” situated at Botertol, Meherpur, Silchar-15 in the district of Cachar. Shifa Pharmacist Institute (herein after referred to as ‘Shifa’) is affiliated to Srimanta Sankardeva University of Health Sciences, Guwahati and is also duly recognized by the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), which is a statutory body under the Govt. of India in the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, entrusted with the responsibility of regulating Pharmacy Education in the country. As per the case projected by the petitioner, he had appeared in a selection test conducted in the Assam Institute of Nursing at Silchar for admission to the aforesaid course, where-after he, along with 05 other candidates, were selected for admission. The course fee for the entire diploma course was Rs. 2,00,000/-excluding book fee, hostel fee and mess fee. However, the total expenses that would be involved in pursuing the above course would be to the tune of Rs. 2,84,000/-(Two lakhs eighty four thousand).

4. Since the petitioner’s father was unable to bear the financial expenses for him to pursue the aforesaid course, he had applied for educational loan of Rs. 2,84,000/-(Two lakhs eighty four thousand) from the respondent No. 2 through the Binakandi Branch of the Bank on 06-04-2022, under the “Punjab National Bank Saraswati Educational Loan” scheme. The application for loan was made online, where-after, the petitioner had also submitted necessary supporting documents for processing the loan. According to the petitioner, the respondent No. 2 had initially assured that the loan would be sanctioned but ultimately, did not do so and on the contrary, had verbally informed the father of the petitioner that the loan will be sanctioned only if collateral security of suitable value is provided so as to secure the loan. Aggrieved thereby, the petitioner has approached this Court by filing the instant writ petition.

5. It appears from the materials on record that having been selected for the Two Years Diploma course (D.Pharma), the petition