COLLEGE TOLD TO REFUND FEE FOR CANCELLED ADMISSION

NMIMS failed to prove seat remained vacant after student pulled out of college, said state consumer disputes redressal commission

The onus of proving financial loss after a student cancels his admission lies on the educational institution and not on the student, the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC) has observed, while upholding an order asking an engineering college to refund tuition fee along with interest.

A panel of judicial member Usha Thakare and member SS Kakade of the SCDRC made this observation in an appeal filed by SVKM’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) against an order asking them to refund Rs 1,75,000 of an Andheri resident’s admission fee along with interest. NMIMS had contended that they should not be made liable to return the money collected from the student, identified as Andheri resident Vidyut Rajkotia, as he had cancelled his admission a month into the course due to which the seat remained vacant.

While AICTE rules allow institutes to keep the money if the seat remained vacant, the court observed that the institute failed to produce documentary evidence supporting the same. “ the district forum rightly observed that burden of proof lies on the opponent/appellant institute (NMIMS) to prove financial loss. It was for the appellant to substantiate what was the capacity of the class, how many admissions were done and how many seats remained vacant,” the panel observed.

In his original complaint to the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Rajkotia had said that he had taken admission in Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and Engineering (a constituent school of NMIMS) without appearing for their entrance test on July 20 2010. He paid Rs 2,05,000 as tuition fee for the computer science course.
Source: https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/civic/college-told-to-refund-fee-for-cancelled-admission/articleshow/63457034.cms