Madras High Court directs Annamalai University to refund fees to student who discontinued MBBS studies

NEW DELHI: The Madras High Court has directed Annamalai University to refund Rs 10.5 lakh to a student who had discontinued the MBBS studies at the university and joined another one.

The direction is in response to a candidate who joined Annamalai University in August 2016 for MBBS programme but obtained admission to another college. The candidate made a request for relieving her from the university but was directed to pay the remaining fee of Rs 22,52,000 to be issued the transfer certificate.

The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court noted that the university had a bond clause in its admission prospectus and it said that if candidates discontinue the programme after July 2016, they will have to pay a penalty of Rs 5 lakh. The Rs 5 lakh is in addition to forfeiture of tuition and other fees, the Annamalai prospectus said.

Observing that the vacant seat in the Annamalai University was subsequently filled and that the university did not suffer any loss, Justice K Kumaresh Babu of the Madurai bench said that the institution can only retain the fee for the months in which the student has studied.

The High Court observed that this clause went fundamentally against the Supreme Court principles where it categorically held that an institution cannot collect more than what they are permitted -- tuition fees and other institutional expenditure.

Moreover, as per UGC guidelines, a university cannot retain the first year fee collected from the student and could retain only the fee for the months when the student was in the institution and in this case, only two months.