Farukh Ilahi Sayyad spends his days in Dubai supervising technical work at industrial sites, a role he has held since 2022. Before that, he worked in Kuwait.
Around him are engineers, some junior to him in experience, some once his classmates in Maharashtra. But for nearly nine years, Sayyad says, he could not officially call himself one.
Not because he failed his engineering course.
Not because he dropped out.
But because the state machinery around a short-lived Muslim reservation policy never clearly decided what to do with students who had already entered the system.
"I used to feel guilty," the 34-year-old from Jawalban village in Beed's Kej taluka said. "There were engineers all around me. If I had my degree on time, maybe I would have been a senior manager by now. My classmates are managers in Mumbai; some are in Germany. I am still working as a supervisor."
This month, the Bombay High Court directed Mumbai University and his college to release his final-year engineering results and degree certificate, bringing to an end a limbo that began in 2014.
Sayyad had secured direct second-year admission to the Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) course at Finolex Academy of Management and Technology in Ratnagiri after completing his diploma in Latur. That same year, the Maharashtra government announced a 5% reservation for Muslims under the Special Backward Class-A category.
Using the required caste certificate, Sayyad took admission under the quota in 2014. Soon after, however, the reservation ran into legal trouble. The Bombay High Court stayed its implementation. But what followed, Sayyad says, was years of confusion between government departments, scrutiny committees, and the university system.
For students like him, the problem was not merely the stay itself. It was the absence of clear administrative communication afterward.
The university insisted on a caste validity certificate before releasing his final marksheet and degree, he said. But according to the High Court order, the scrutiny committee informed him it was "legally unable to process or issue validity certificates for this category" after the stay.
Caught between two authorities, Sayyad kept travelling back and forth from Ratnagiri to Beed and Aurangabad, trying to submit documents and seek clarification. He says he repeatedly approached the minority department, the Directorate of Technical Education, and university authorities but received little response.
"At least hear us out," he said. "If a student comes to Mantralaya or the university, at least respond. They used to just shrug us off."
According to the court order, Sayyad successfully completed the engineering course in 2017 and had passed all academic requirements from semesters three to seven. Yet his eighth-semester result and degree certificate remained withheld for over eight years.
The irony, Sayyad says, is that he was not even availing the reservation's financial benefits by the end. Fearing cancellation of his admission, he paid fees applicable to the open category. The High Court order also records that he had paid fees on an "open category" basis and undertook to pay any remaining difference if required.
The court also noted a February 17, 2026, government resolution stating that the 2014 ordinance introducing the reservation had lapsed after it was not converted into law and that related government resolutions and circulars stood cancelled.
For Sayyad, however, that clarification came years too late.
"If this had been clarified properly in 2015 itself, maybe I would have benefited," he said. "There is no accountability."
His family, he says, did not fully understand what he had been dealing with all these years. His parents worked as labourers and struggled to fund his education. To continue studying, Sayyad sold pav and toys, while his mother sold bangles to support the household and help keep his education going.
When he secured admission to a Pune college earlier, he could not afford the fees and living costs there. Ratnagiri became the cheaper option.
"I never told my family everything," he said quietly. "They only knew I kept travelling to Mumbai."
After recent media reports about his case, people in his village finally began understanding what had happened. The village sarpanch visited his home. Calls started pouring in.
"People are now telling my family that Salim went through a lot," he said.
In court, Mumbai University's lawyer appeared only after the petition was filed, Sayyad claimed. The High Court eventually directed the university and college to release his final-year result, degree certificate, passing certificate, and leaving certificate upon compliance with formalities.
