65 PG students to get 50% fee refund
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) on Thursday dismissed petitions filed by 65 post-graduate (PG) students from the Ayurveda stream who completed three years of their course, but refused to appear for the final examination, as the Admissions Regulatory Authority had declined to approve their admissions.
The HC directed the colleges to refund half of the fees (₹2.12 lakh) per annum accepted from each of the students and also pay them ad-hoc compensation of ₹1 lakh each in three months for a loss of three years.
The 65 students had moved the high court, challenging the July 3, 2019 order of the Admissions Regulatory Authority, refusing to approve their admissions on the ground of being ‘ineligible’ to be admitted for the PG Ayurveda course.
The petitioners had sought regularisation of their admission and direction to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences
(MUHS) to allow them to complete the course and secure master’s degrees, contending that they were admitted in the mop-up round at the college level after all six rounds of common admission process were over.
Some of them had not even appeared for the Common Entrance Test (CET) for admissions to PG Ayurveda courses and the remaining students had failed to secure qualifying marks in the entrance exam.
The division bench of justice AS Chandurkar and justice GA Sanap, however, held the four medical colleges, – Annasaheb Dange Medical College, Loknete Rajarambapu Patil Ayurvedic Medical College – both located in Sangli district, and Yashwant Ayurvedic Mahavidyalaya and Kedari Redekar Ayurvedic Mahavidyalaya located in Kolhapur district – where the students were admitted, responsible for the loss of their three academic years and directed the colleges to refund half the annual fees accepted from the students and pay ₹1lakh to each of them, towards ad-hoc compensation for admitting them in breach of the admission rules and regulations. HC, however, refused to grant any relief to them after noticing that their admissions were in contravention of the Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fees) Act, 2015, Rules framed under the enactment and the brochure for PGA-CET 2016.
“The same is, therefore, void in view of Section 5 of the Act of 2015,” said the court while refusing to regularise their admissions.
The court refused to accept the excuse put forth by the colleges that admitted the students out of financial constraints, as they did not wish to let the seats remain vacant. “This can hardly be a justification for by-passing mandatory statutory provisions,” said the court. “If such a plea is permitted to be accepted, it would result in grave consequences thereby diluting prescribed minimum standards in the field of education.”