{"id":"f-80ae245e0c-2ccb865b-4061-5c88-960f-15f6fdb9fe37","title":"How A Palak Paneer Lunch Dispute Ended In Rs 1.65-Crore Settlement For Two Indian Students In US","description":"Aditya Prakash said matters worsened, with repeated summons to meetings with senior faculty, allegations that he had made staff “feel unsafe” and complaints against him.","timestamp":1768311124,"category":"national_v_two","headline":"How A Palak Paneer Lunch Dispute Ended In Rs 1.65-Crore Settlement For Two Indian Students In US","modifiedHeadline":"Palak Paneer Fight Leads To Crores Settlement","subCategories":["scid_d3a98dc5"],"region":"IN","bundleMetaData":{"bundleId":"c80449a0-0ad6-472b-8d17-5747dd8f5c83","bundleTitle":"Around the globe","cardData":null},"iabCategoryId":"140","fcSummary":"An indian doctoral student's lunch of palak paneer sparked a discrimination claim. A staff member complained about the smell, leading to escalating retaliation, a lawsuit, and a $200,000 settlement. The couple has since returned to India, alleging emotional distress and discrimination.","summary":"Palak Paneer lunch dispute led to a $1.65-crore settlement for two Indian students in the US after allegations and faculty meetings.","ctaUrl":"https://trends.glance.com/newz/news/IN/en/news18/f-80ae245e0c-2ccb865b-4061-5c88-960f-15f6fdb9fe37","sourceUrl":"https://www.news18.com/world/how-a-palak-paneer-lunch-dispute-ended-in-rs-1-65-crore-settlement-for-two-indian-students-in-us-ws-l-9828061.html","bannerImage":"https://g-mob.glance-cdn.com/public/fc/image/GZOXbbQUAtx0.webp","content":"

A lunch of palak paneer heated in a shared microwave set off a chain of events that ended with two Indian doctoral students leaving the United States and a $200,000 settlement with a major American university.

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On September 5, 2023, Aditya Prakash, then a fully funded PhD student in anthropology at the University of Colorado Boulder, was warming his lunch in a departmental microwave when a staff member approached him, complained about the “smell” and told him not to use the facility, Aditya Prakash recalled. He was heating palak paneer.

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“She said it was pungent,” said Aditya Prakash, now 34, adding, “I told her calmly, ‘It’s just food. I’m heating it and leaving.’”

The incident, he says, marked the beginning of what he and his partner, fellow PhD student Urmi Bhattacheryya, described as a pattern of discrimination and retaliation. Two years later, in September 2025, the university reached a settlement with the couple following a federal civil rights lawsuit, agreeing to pay them $200,000 and confer on them Master’s degrees. Under the agreement, both are barred from future enrolment or employment at the university.

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Earlier this month, Aditya Prakash and Urmi Bhattacheryya returned to India permanently.

In their lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the District of Colorado, the couple alleged that after Aditya Prakash raised concerns about discriminatory treatment, the university “engaged in a pattern of escalating retaliation”. The complaint cited a departmental kitchen policy that they said had a “disproportionate and discriminatory impact on ethnic groups like South Asians”, creating a climate where Indian students were wary of opening their lunches in shared spaces.

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“The discriminatory treatment and ongoing retaliation caused us emotional distress, mental anguish, and pain and suffering,” the lawsuit said.

Aditya Prakash said matters worsened after the incident, with repeated summons to meetings with senior faculty, allegations that he had made staff “feel unsafe” and complaints filed against him with the Office of Student Conduct.

Urmi Bhattacheryya, 35, alleged that she lost her teaching assistantship without warning or explanation. She also said that when she and other students brought Indian food to campus two days after the incident, they were accused of “inciting a riot”. Those complaints were later dismissed, she said.

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Aditya Prakash, who is from Bhopal, and Urmi Bhattacheryya, from Kolkata, said the first year of their doctoral programmes passed without incident. Aditya Prakash received grants and funding while Urmi Bhattacheryya’s research on marital rape was well received. Both said they had invested their life savings in pursuing higher education in the US.

“Everything changed overnight after that food-heating episode,” Aditya Prakash said, adding, “My food is my pride. Ideas about what smells good or bad are culturally determined.”

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He said he pushed back against arguments that other foods such as broccoli were also restricted due to odour.

“Context matters,” he said, asking, “How many groups face racism because they eat broccoli?”

The couple said they were heartened when 29 fellow students from the anthropology department issued a statement backing them, calling the response to Indian food “harmful” and discriminatory. The students cited the department’s own statement on systemic racism, saying diversity should be “celebrated, not merely tolerated”.

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Urmi Bhattacheryya said action against her followed shortly after she invited Aditya Prakash to speak in a class on ethnocentrism about his lived experience, without naming individuals or detailing the incident.

By May 2025, the couple filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging discrimination and retaliation. By the time a settlement was reached, both said they no longer wished to return to the US.

“Going back would mean re-entering the same system, with the same visa precarity,” Aditya Prakash said, asserting, “I don’t see myself going back.”

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Urmi Bhattacheryya said their experience reflected a broader hardening of attitudes in the US amid political shifts following Donald Trump’s return to power.

“Institutions talk about inclusion,” she said, “but there is less patience for discomfort — especially when it comes from immigrants or people of colour.”

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How A Palak Paneer Lunch Dispute Ended In Rs 1.65-Crore Settlement For Two Indian Students In US

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