In an important judgment, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that certificates of a student are his/her individual property and no other institution/individual can retain the same without lawful authority.
“If, something is due from a student or a student is required to do something lawfully stipulated, upon refusal, recourse can be taken to means provided under the law for ensuring compliance. Adopting the method of retaining original certificates/documents is unfair to say the least,” the high court bench of justice Sudhir Mittal observed.
The court was hearing a May 2022 plea of Monika, who had approached the high court against the Pt BD Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak.
She was granted admission to the bachelor of dental science course and she deposited ₹52,090 along with her original certificates. However, she did not join the course and requested for refund of the amount deposited and return of her certificates. The request was not accepted by the institute.
She cleared the National Eligibility Test for undergraduate medical courses in 2020 and following counselling she was allotted a seat in February 2022 in the BDS course. Initial deposit and original certificates were deposited by her on February 7, 2022. However, she wrote a mail on March 14, 2022, requesting that the admission be cancelled. In May, she represented the university for the return of the fee deposited and original documents. But the university did not agree. Following this, she approached the high court arguing that documents are her property and cannot be retained by the university.
{{/usCountry}}She cleared the National Eligibility Test for undergraduate medical courses in 2020 and following counselling she was allotted a seat in February 2022 in the BDS course. Initial deposit and original certificates were deposited by her on February 7, 2022. However, she wrote a mail on March 14, 2022, requesting that the admission be cancelled. In May, she represented the university for the return of the fee deposited and original documents. But the university did not agree. Following this, she approached the high court arguing that documents are her property and cannot be retained by the university.
{{/usCountry}}In the high court, the university had argued that the last date for the counselling was April 28, 2022, and she was granted admission as she was declared successful in the first round. The university had referred to the Haryana government procedure for admission to MBBS/BDS courses according to which every student has to execute a bond of ₹10 lakh supported by two sureties that he/she would not leave the course midway. In case the student leaves the course midway, an amount of ₹10 lakh would be recoverable, the university had argued, adding that the directorate general of health sciences, Government of India, in February 2022 notification had advised colleges not to accept offline resignation applications as such vacant seats cannot be included in further rounds of counselling. The petitioner did not apply online and accordingly, her request was not entitled to be accepted, it was stated. “The original certificates cannot be returned unless and until the bond money is paid because the petitioner has left the course midway,” the university had submitted.
The court observed that no terms and conditions of admission have been brought to the notice of the court entitling the university to retain the original documents as security for payment of money allegedly due. “… Thus, retention of the original documents as security is not sustainable in law,” the bench said, adding that the last date of counselling was April 28 and she had intimated about the surrender of the seat on March 14.
“Therefore, it is doubtful, whether, the petitioner can be said to have left the course midway,” the bench said further observing that certificates of a student are his/her individual property and no other institution/individual can retain the same without lawful authority. The court has now directed that her original certificates be returned within 10 days.