Palak paneer lunch fight leads to Rs 1.8 crore settlement for Indian students in US
Two students resolve lawsuit after dispute over lunch at American college cafeteria turns into major legal battle
Two Indian PhD students, Aditya Prakash (34) and Urmi Bhattacheryya (35), at the University of Colorado Boulder have settled their legal suit against the school over heating palak paneer in a common campus microwave and have secured $200,000 (approximately 1.8 crore) in a civil lawsuit.
The case goes back to September 5, 2023, when Prakash was warming his lunch in a departmental microwave. One of the members of the campus staff is reported to have protested against the strong aroma of the food and ordered him not to use the microwave. Prakash answered that he was simply heating his food and going.
The incident, he says, marked the beginning of what he and his partner described as a pattern of discrimination and retaliation, including holding frequent meetings with faculty members at which Prakash was made to feel unwelcome, and Bhattacharyya being deprived of her teaching assistant position without any reason. The couple further alleged that the department had not granted them Master degrees they had undertaken in the first place.
The university settled in September 2025, following a federal civil rights lawsuit that he filed in the United States District Court of the District of Colorado. According to the conditions, the couple was paid $200,000 and was actually granted their master’s degrees, but neither of them is allowed to attend or to work at the institution again.
Prakash and Bhattacharya have since come back to India, and they termed the result as a battle of dignity and cultural acceptance. The case gained online attention and sparked a discussion of the concept of cultural sensitivity and discrimination against international students in U.S. campuses.
