Girl breaches norms, Bombay High Court denies Rs 28 lakh fee refund

Source: freepressjournal.in

Mumbai: A teenager would not be getting Rs28 lakh, the amount her parents paid for her admission in a medical course. It comes after the Bombay High Court refused to provide any help to the teenage girl, who first took admission in a medical course and suddenly gave it up and sought a refund of the parents’ ‘hard-earned’ money.

A bench of Justices Satyaranjan Dharmadhikari and Gautam Patel noted that the girl did not follow any due procedure of law and breached the norms.

The judges were dealing with a plea filed by a girl and her father, who was admitted to a Pune-based medical institute. She had paid the entire fee for the first year of her course and then after the lectures commenced, she got her admission cancelled.

According to the student, she got her admission cancelled as she and her parents were facing financial issues, and thus she would not be able to complete her medical course.

She then sought a refund of her fee, which the college refused. Then, she dragged the institute to the HC, claiming the college has ‘wrongly’ retained her money.

The college, in its defence, refuted the allegations, claiming the girl did not apply for cancellation of her admission as per the rule and that her request for the same was made only after its deadline expired.

“Approaching the college directly for cancellation was wholly impermissible, and despite this, there is nothing to show the girl made the cancellation application in time to the competent authority,” the bench noted.

“If the girl is not interested in the course and she is also not interested in taking any degree in medicine at all, then we do not think that we can issue an order contrary to the scheme of granting admissions to under-graduate courses,” the bench ruled.

In their order, the judges further held if an application for cancellation of admission made within the time limit as provided in law, is not accepted by the appropriate authority then there is no question of cancellation or refund.

“We find that the policy is salutary and in the public interest. It is intended to stop persons from speculating in educational seat allotments and, particularly, in medical admissions which are highly coveted.

It is for this reason that there is an open, structured and transparent process in place for admissions, counselling, various CAP rounds, mop-up rounds, allotments, reporting, undertaking, acceptance etc,” the bench noted.

“If the girl’s argument is to be accepted then it would mean that her undertaking (given at the time of admission) is worthless and she could cancel the admission at any time in any manner and without following any proper procedure or protocol. That is inconceivable,” the judges ruled.