In Brief
A student admitted to the Lucknow campus of a multi-campus university on merit ranked 3rd sought transfer to Hyderabad campus where she ranked 101st and was ineligible for the 40 available seats. After a year, vacant seats arose at Hyderabad, prompting her transfer request. The High Court's Single Judge allowed the transfer, distinguishing admission from post-admission transfer; the Division Bench reversed this. The Supreme Court held that once a student chooses a campus and is admitted, transfer is barred by clear, explicit university rules prohibiting all inter-campus changes before or after admission for any reason. The rules preserve merit-based allocation. Rare exceptions may be considered only for genuinely exceptional circumstances (like serious untreatable medical conditions), not for language problems or proximity to home.
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