India, May 19 -- The Bombay High Court on Monday permitted 751 engineering students of the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) to appear for their third and fourth year examinations scheduled from May 20, despite having backlogs in their first and second years, respectively.

A vacation bench of justices Gautam A Ankhad and Sandesh D Patil said under the "carry on" policy introduced by the state government last year, the students had already been allowed to enroll in the third and fourth years despite backlogs in earlier years; hence, they deserved interim protection to avoid academic prejudice at the eleventh hour.

The court directed the university to accept and verify the students' examination forms within 24 hours to ensure that t...