'What a joke': $200,000 palak paneer settlement resurfaces online; 2 Indian PhD students win in food-smell racist case

A legal settlement dating back to September 2025 has resurfaced online and gone viral, thanks to its unexpectedly quirky subject: palak paneer.University of Colorado Boulder settled a federal lawsuit in September 2025 for $200,000, after two Indian PhD candidates Aditya Prakash and Urmi Bhattacharyya alleged discrimination over the smell of South Asian food and a hostile environment, following an incident on September 5, 2023, when Prakash heated his Indian lunch and clashed with staff, according to several media outlets. The couple filed the lawsuit in May 2025, alleging discrimination against South Asian food smells and a hostile environment. The case was backed by 29 peers.The dispute began on September 5, 2023, when Prakash heated his Indian lunch at the university and clashed with staff. The couple later accused the university of retaliation, including lost teaching roles and withheld degrees.Under the settlement, the university paid $200,000, granted the Master’s degrees, and barred Prakash and Bhattacharyya from future ties with the university. The university denied liability.The settlement goes viral on the internet. One of the users on X said, "Courts awarded two foreign nationals 200,000 USD because they were offending people at their university by microwaving their food, what a joke."Another user said, "They don’t need future enrolment and employment after winning $2,00,000😂"A user said, "look at the leftie / conglus in the replies saying how they shouldn't have heated up palak paneer, mind you, in the campus microwave. basically brown sepoys telling them to swallow systemic racism because now they've 'ruined it for all'."