Monday, April 16, 2018

Forum directs college to return certificates of student who dropped out 8 years ago

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  16.04.2018

Chennai: A consumer forum came to the aid of a student whose original certificates were held up by a city dental college, where she discontinued the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course after a year, eight years ago. District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Chennai (North) directed the management of a city dental college to return the original certificates of a student, who had discontinued the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course after a year, eight years ago, and also slapped a fine of ₹55,000 on the college management for causing her mental agony.

According to a petition by the student’s father, M Sundaravadanam, his daughter Thirupurasundari had joined the BDS course in July 2010 at Priyadarshini Dental College and Hospital in Aminjikarai under management quota.

“While she was in her second year, she developed health complications, due to which she had to discontinue (the course) in August 2011,” the petition noted.

Sundaravadanam had paid a fee of ₹3.64 lakh for the first and second academic years in separate instalments— in September 2010 and December 2011. Since his daughter had discontinued her studies, he requested the college management to return her original certificates and the transfer certificate in January 2013. However, the management demanded that Sundaravadanam pay the pending fee of ₹2 lakh for the academic year 2012-13 and said that the original certificates would not be returned till then.

In his petition, Sundaravadanam stated that he then approached various government authorities to instruct the college to return the certificates. His attempts bore no fruit and hence he approached the consumer forum. In its counter petition, the college management claimed that the student discontinued due to family circumstances.

“It was clearly explained that the total number of students admitted for the particular year was fixed at 100 by the authorities and any discontinuation in the middle of the course cannot be filled, and the vacancy will continue for the remaining period causing monetary loss to the institution,” the counter petition stated.

The consumer forum bench comprising president K Jayabalan and member M Uyirroli Kannan after perusing the documents said there was no rule produced by the college management that says a student had to pay remaining academic fee and ruled that the college committed deficiency in service.

The bench imposed a fine of ₹55, 000 on the management and directed the management to return her original certificates — Class X and XII marksheets, transfer certificate and community certificate — within six weeks.

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