Karnataka High Court rejects BDS student’s petition seeking fee refund

The Karnataka High Court has rejected a petition filed by a student seeking refund of Rs 13.8 lakh fee paid to a dental college. The petitioner student was admitted to BDS course in 2014 and claimed that she couldn’t appear for the examination because of misrepresentation by the Admission Overseeing Committee and the college.

The petitioner student, from Kollam in Kerala, had got admission to first year BDS course in Dr Shyamala Reddy Dental College Hospital and Research Centre, Bengaluru in June 2014. The petitioner sought a refund of Rs 13.8 lakh fee paid as tuition fee and hostel expenses and Rs 5 lakh as compensation.

The petitioner claimed that it was because of the misrepresentation by the college management that she could not appear for the first year BDS examination.

The college management, on the other hand, argued that the petitioner was one of the appellants in writ appeal in 2015 and her admission to BDS course was approved by the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS). The college argued that the petitioner had completed first year BDS course and had left the course and had sought the migration certificate as well.

A division bench headed by Justice Alok Aradhe noted that on December 8, 2017 itself, the high court had directed the college management to return the original migration and transfer certificate to the petitioner which was complied with.

In view of the fact that the admission of the petitioner was not cancelled and she prosecuted the studies of first year BDS examination, the bench noted that the petitioner ought to have taken recourse to the appropriate remedy with regard to her grievance.

The bench said that section 58 of the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Act, 2006 permits the Admission Overseeing Committee to examine any irregularity in the process of admission and the same does not empower the said committee to grant refund of fee.