Khushi Dosh-
Published On: February 02, 2022 at 11:30 IST
Court recently ordered a medical college and institution not to incur a student who had withdrawn from their post-graduate programme the full three-year course fee.
In Vaibhav Khosla v. State of Karnataka and Ors the division Bench of Justices Alok Aradhe and MGS Kamal ruled that the college had no Legal Right to demand full course fees and ordered Rajarajeshwari Medical College and Hospital to return the Petitioner’s original documents and to Refrain from charging the full three-year course fees of 25,32,000 because the Petitioner had withdrawn from the programme before it began.
Islamic Academy of Education and Anr. v. State of Karnataka and Ors (2003), case was referred in which the court stated,
“educational institutions can only charge the prescribed fees for one semester or one year. If the institution is concerned that a student will drop out in the middle of his or her studies, he or she may require the student to provide a bond or bank guarantee for the remaining fees.”
Petitioner after completing his MBBS course, the petitioner in this case took the Post Graduate National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test, 2018 administered by the Karnataka Examination Authority.
The respondent college assigned him a seat in MD Psychiatry for which he deposited 7,74,500 and all of his original documents.
He was later admitted to Christian Medical College in Ludhiana for MS Orthopedics. As a result, he resigned from the respondent’s medical college and requested that his original documents be returned to him. This was done prior to the commencement of course.
The college requested a deposit of 25,32,000, the total cost of the three-year programme, or elese the original documents won’t be returned. R espondent’s, advocate Chandrakanth R Goulay argued that if the original documents were returned, the college would be unable to recover the full course fees.
It was argued that because he had withdrawn from the course, the college was hindered from admitting another student to the course and, as a result, is allowed to claim the entire course fee for him.
According to the law established by the Supreme Court in Islamic Academy of Education and Another, institutions do not have the legal right to demand full course fees from students who leave the programme.
On September 24, 2019, the Court granted the petitioner interim relief, ordering the institution to return his original documents. The petitioner agreed not to seek a refund of the 7,74,500 deposit with the institution.
