Student Stripped of Funding Over Using Microwave for 'Pungent' Indian Food Wins £148K Discrimination Case

A two-year struggle over a lunchtime curry has ended with a landmark civil rights settlement after two Indian doctoral students alleged systemic discrimination at a major American university.

In what began as a routine act of heating homemade food, a complaint about the 'pungent' smell of Indian cuisine sparked a federal civil rights lawsuit. It culminated in a £148,000 ($200,000) settlement for the students, marking the end of their academic careers at the institution.

The settlement came after the University of Colorado Boulder agreed to pay damages and confer the master's degrees the students said were withheld from them in retaliation, even as it denied any liability.

From Lunchroom Conflict to Courtroom Action

The dispute began on 5 September 2023 when Aditya Prakash, then a PhD student in the Anthropology Department at the University of Colorado Boulder, used a shared departmental microwave to heat his lunch: palak paneer, a spinach and cottage cheese dish.

A university staff member approached him and objected to the smell, describing it as 'pungent' and asserting that departmental rules prohibited heating foods with strong odours in that space.

Prakash responded that it was merely food and that he was entitled to use common facilities. Within days, the incident set off a chain of administrative actions that he and his partner, Urmi Bhattacheryya, also a PhD candidate, would later describe as discriminatory.

The initial encounter was not an isolated policy enforcement, according to the couple's lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. They allege that, following the complaint, Prakash was summoned to meetings with senior faculty and accused of making staff feel 'unsafe'. Bhattacheryya was abruptly removed from her teaching assistantship without a detailed explanation.

Administration also introduced a blanket ban on microwaves in the department's kitchen, the complaint states, and the couple contend that policies were applied in ways that disproportionately impacted South Asian and other international students.

What had been a midday lunch break quickly turned into a battle over academic rights and equal treatment. The lawsuit argued that the university's handling of the incident reflected deeper 'systemic bias' against students who did not conform to dominant cultural norms, with food merely the flashpoint for broader exclusionary practices.

Allegations of Retaliation and Hostile Environment

The lawsuit filed in May 2025 contended that Prakash and Bhattacheryya suffered retaliation after raising concerns about discriminatory treatment. It outlined a series of professional setbacks for the couple, including loss of funding, removal of academic supervision, denial of credit transfers, and withholding of master's degrees they had earned en route to their PhDs.

According to the complaint, the university's actions caused the couple 'loss of contractual benefits, diminished academic and professional opportunities, economic harm, and emotional distress.'

One key point of contention was the withholding of the master's degrees that doctoral candidates typically receive during their academic progression. Prakash's attorneys argued that this move amounted to a form of academic strangulation, effectively holding their academic records hostage in retaliation for their discrimination complaints.

Two days after the microwave incident, she invited Prakash to speak to her class on ethnocentrism, drawing on his lived experience. Even though he did not name individuals or detail the event, she later lost her teaching assistantship, her lawsuit asserts.

Both students also alleged that when Bhattacheryya and several other students brought Indian food to campus in solidarity with Prakash, they were accused of 'inciting a riot' — a claim that was later dismissed by the university's Office of Student Conduct.

Settlement and Aftermath

After months of litigation, the University of Colorado Boulder agreed to settle the civil rights lawsuit. Under the settlement terms, the university agreed to pay £148,000 ($200,000) to the couple and to confer the Master's degrees they had been denied.

In exchange, the students withdrew their complaint and agreed not to seek future enrolment or employment at the university, effectively closing the door on further academic opportunities there.

The agreement was reached without the institution admitting liability. A university spokesperson reiterated that established procedures were followed and maintained that the university remained committed to an inclusive environment for students and staff.

By the time the settlement was secured, both Prakash and Bhattacheryya had decided not to return to the United States, citing concerns about visa precarity and the emotional toll of the conflict. They have since returned to India.

A dispute over lunch transformed into a court-verified settlement that raises fundamental questions about cultural inclusion and the treatment of international students in academic institutions.