Karnataka High Court declines fee refund plea by NRI quota student

Bengaluru: The high court has refused to direct Sri Devaraj Urs Academy of Higher Education and Research in Kolar to refund Rs 27 lakh to an NRI quota student admitted to the MBBS course in 2017.

A division bench, comprising Justices D K Singh and Venkatesh Naik T, said that the petitioner had failed to demonstrate any provision in the prospectus or the MCI Examination Admission Rules that would entitle him to a refund of the fees after admission and fee deposit, followed by a request to cancel his admission

The petitioner, Ajay Jayakumar Nair, was admitted to the MBBS programme at Sri Devaraj Urs Academy, deemed university, under the NRI quota through the NEET-UG-2017 entrance examination. The petitioner said that his mother lost her job in Saudi Arabia and, hence, he was not in a position to pay the fee for further studies. On August 30, 2017, he submitted a letter to the institution requesting cancellation of the admission and a refund of Rs 27 lakh fee paid by him.

According to the petitioner, the institution will not suffer any loss by cancelling his admission as it had taken admission against the vacant seat caused as a result of the cancellation.

On the other hand, the institution claimed that being a deemed university, the seats in the medical course are allotted by the Medical Council of India (MCI) under 15% of All India Quota and that it cannot admit the students on its own.

The institution further submitted that it should have claimed damages from the petitioner as one seat of the NRI quota in the MBBS course had remained vacant for four and a half years.

The division bench noted that in cases seeking a refund of fees following the cancellation of admission, the high court had earlier ruled that once a candidate is admitted to a professional course after counselling, they are not entitled to a refund if they seek to cancel their admission.

“In the absence of any provision for a refund of fees and when there is no evidence to suggest that the institution admitted any other student against the vacant seat caused by the petitioner's cancellation of admission, we are of the view that no such mandamus can be issued to the respondent institution to refund the fee,” the bench said.

The bench, however, granted the liberty to approach the Karnataka Fee Regulatory Committee for his grievance.

The court said that the committee should examine the case independently and in accordance with the law, without being influenced by the observations in the order.