NEW DELHI: The Calcutta high court has directed a dental collage to refund the full fee and original documents of a student who left the MDS programme in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery just after 6 days of enrolment. It also held the collage liable for not following the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines.What was the case about?After completing her BDS from Kalinga Institute of Dental Sciences, Dr. Sreeparna Ghosh secured admission through the NEET MDS counselling process at the Haldia Institute of Dental Sciences and Research (HIDSAR) in Purba Medinipur in West Bengal. She paid Rs 9.5 lakh in fees and submitted eight original documents.After attending for six days, she found that the college lacked adequate educational facilities and decided to withdraw. Within two weeks after joining, she emailed the college requesting a refund and the return of her documents.The college refused to return the fee and demanded that she first pay the remaining Rs 18 lakh of the three-year course fee before it would release her documents. The college relied on a discontinuity bond she had signed on the day of admission, under which she had undertaken to pay the full tuition fee if she left the course midway.However, her counsel argued that without her original BDS degree and registration certificate, she could neither practice as a dentist nor pursue any further academic course.What did the high court say?Justice Krishna Rao of the Calcutta high court ruled in favour of the student and held that HIDSAR had failed to comply with the UGC guidelinesThe court first took up the college’s argument that UGC rules do not apply to dental colleges, which are regulated by the Dental Council of India.The high court rejected this argument outright and said that the UGC’s Fee Refund Policy dated June 12, 2024 required all affiliated higher education institutions to refund fees in full for withdrawals made before September 30, 2024 and since Dr. Ghosh had written to the college on September 10, the court held she was entitled to the full refund of Rs 9.5 lakh.The court relied on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Praneeth K. vs UGC (2021), which had firmly settled that UGC guidelines carry statutory force.“It is the statutory obligation of the universities to adopt the guidelines and the guidelines cannot be ignored by terming it as non-statutory or advisory,” the bench noted.Justice Rao also pointed out that the discontinuity bond Dr. Ghosh had signed said nothing about the college being allowed to keep her original documents. The college had no basis for doing so and it had simply assumed it could.The court further held that a student’s certificates are essential documents, important for both jobs and further studies, and holding them back to extract money leaves the student with no choice but to pay whatever the college demands, even if she believes she does not owe it.“Even assuming that the agreement/bond executed by the petitioners in favour of the college authorising them to withhold their certificates is not void for want of consideration, the same is void as opposed to public policy,” the court held.The court directed HIDSAR to return Rs 9.5 lakh and all original documents to Dr. Ghosh within two weeks.
