Two Indian doctoral students have won a $200,000 settlement from the University of Colorado Boulder following a civil rights lawsuit that emerged from a dispute over heating Indian food on campus. The students told The Indian Express that the case exposed deeper issues of discrimination and retaliation.
Aditya Prakash and Urmi Bhattacheryya, both PhD students at the university at the time, returned to India earlier this month after the settlement was finalised in September 2025. As part of the agreement, the university awarded them Master’s degrees but barred them from future enrolment or employment at the institution.
Indian PhD students win $200,000 settlement at US university
The case goes back to September 5, 2023, when Prakash, then a PhD student in the Anthropology Department, was heating palak paneer in a departmental microwave. According to Prakash, a staff member complained about the “smell” of the food and asked him not to use the microwave. Prakash said he remained calm and refused to comply, telling the staff member, “It’s just food. I’m heating and leaving.”
What followed, he alleges, was a series of actions by the department that he describes as harassment and retaliation. In their lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, the two students said that after Prakash raised concerns about discriminatory treatment, the university engaged in “a pattern of escalating retaliation,” according to The Indian Express.
Prakash told The Indian Express, he was repeatedly called in for meetings with senior faculty, accused of making staff feel unsafe, and reported to the Office of Student Conduct. At the time, he was a fully funded PhD student.
Bhattacheryya said she lost her teaching assistant position without explanation. She also alleged that when she and three 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.
The lawsuit also challenged the department’s kitchen policies, arguing that they had a “disproportionate and discriminatory impact” on South Asian students and discouraged them from eating their food in shared spaces. The students said the treatment caused them emotional distress and mental anguish.
Speaking about the decision to pursue legal action, Prakash said the department also refused to award them Master’s degrees, typically granted to PhD students during the course of their programme. “That’s when we decided to seek legal recourse,” he told The Indian Express.
Decision to leave the US
Prakash, who is from Bhopal, and Bhattacheryya, from Kolkata, said pursuing PhDs in the US had been a major financial commitment for them. “We put all our savings into it,” Prakash said.
Both said their first year passed without incident, with Prakash receiving grants and Bhattacheryya’s research being well-received. The food-related dispute, they said, changed everything.
Bhattacheryya linked their experience to a bigger pattern, a massive shift in the US after President Donald Trump’s return to power. “Institutions talk about inclusion, but there is less patience for discomfort, especially when it comes from immigrants or people of colour,” she said. “The message wasn’t always explicit, but it was there: you are here conditionally, and you can be made to feel that very quickly,” she told The Indian Express.
The students filed their federal civil rights lawsuit in May 2025. By the time the settlement was reached, they said they had no desire to return to the US due to visa uncertainty and fear of further retaliation. “I don’t see myself going back,” Prakash said.
He added that the case was about more than compensation. “If this sends a message that food-based discrimination cannot be practised without consequences, that would be the real victory,” he said.
University’s response
In a statement to The Indian Express, University of Colorado Boulder spokesperson Deborah Mendez-Wilson said the university had reached a settlement but denied any wrongdoing. “The university denies any liability. CU Boulder has established processes to address allegations of discrimination and harassment and adhered to those processes in this matter,” she said, adding that the university remains committed to fostering an inclusive environment.
According to The Indian Express, twenty-nine students from the Anthropology Department issued a statement backing Prakash and Bhattacheryya, criticising what they described as a “harmful response” to discriminatory food policies. They cited the department’s own statement on systemic racism, saying that diversity should be “not just tolerated, but celebrated”.