Efforts must be made to “promote” Kashmir’s youth, not “destroy” them, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday while dismissing the Jammu and Kashmir government’s plea for immediate repayment of a loan granted to a girl to study medicine in Bangladesh under a central scheme for minorities.

“You wanted to destroy the career of the girl sheerly due to your fault. She will just be compelled to leave the medical college, cancel her admission because of non-payment of money,” Justice Chandrachud, heading the bench, told advocate Taruna Prasad appearing for the Jammu and Kashmir administration.

The other judge on the bench, Justice Surya Kant, remarked: “We need to promote the youth of Kashmir by educating them and setting aside the high court’s order will impact it negatively. Our interference will be contrary to it.”

Jammu and Kashmir High Court had ruled in favour of Mubashir Ashra Bhat, now into the second year of her MBBS course in Enayetpur Sharif, Bangladesh.

The Supreme Court noted that the only mistake, if it could be termed one, was that Mubashir had to join Khwaja Yunus Ali Medical College in Bangladesh instead of Community Based Medical College Bangladesh, in Dhaka, for which she had been sanctioned a loan of Rs 30 lakh by the Jammu & Kashmir Women’s Development Corporation under a central government finance scheme for minority students run by the National Minority Development and Finance Corporation.

Mubashir was compelled to opt for Khwaja Yunus Ali Medical College after Community Based Medical College cancelled her application as the first loan instalment of Rs 6 lakh from the corporation had not come through before the admission deadline in 2019.

The corporation, which had sanctioned the first instalment five months after the application in 2018, had asked Mubashir to return that amount immediately when she applied for the second tranche of the loan, citing that she had not got admitted to the college for which the loan had been sanctioned. This had prompted Mubashir to move the high court.

The Supreme Court had from the beginning of the hearing not appreciated the Jammu and Kashmir administration’s decision to file a special leave petition challenging the high court order in Mubashir’s favour.

“The poor girl got admission to a community college of Bangladesh. Now one girl from J&K will become a doctor. She is a young girl and is pursuing her second-year MBBS in Bangladesh. No doubt there is lax on her part. She is a youngster. Many young people make mistakes. Have we not done mistakes when we were young?” Justice Chandrachud asked.

Later, the apex court passed a written order dismissing the appeal filed by the Jammu and Kashmir administration.

Mubashir had approached the corporation for a loan in September 2018. The first instalment was released after a delay of five months, on February 24, 2019. The admission cut-off at Community Based Medical College Bangladesh was November 20, 2018.

A single judge had dismissed Mubashir’s plea against the corporation but a division bench on April 20, 2021, set aside that order.