E-Paper
Diploma instead of degree: Chandigarh court says no FIR after parties compromise
Decision after Shivam Malhotra of Patiala withdrew complaint against institute in Sector 34, Chandigarh, for issuing him diploma instead of degree in animation and multimedia.
A Chandigarh court that had earlier asked the police to register a case against a Sector 34 institute for duping a student of ₹2.9 lakh by issuing a diploma instead of a degree has in a recent order recognised the compromise between the parties and decided that an FIR is not required.
The parties struck a compromise on January 10 and the complainant, Shivam Malhotra of Patiala, withdrew his complaint against OXL Enterprises.
In view of this, the court of judicial magistrate (1st class), Chandigarh, Komple Dhanjal, in its order on January 12 recognised the compromise deed wrote to the police that a first information report (FIR) was not required to be registered in the case.
What complainant said earlier
Earlier, Malhotra said he had approached OXL Enterprises in 2012 for a degree in animation and multimedia through their OXL School of Multimedia.
The affairs at the school were being managed by Kuljinder Singh Sidhu and Nidhi Kaur Sidhu of Sector 50-C, Chandigarh, and Dinesh Sood and Monica Sood of Sector 66-A, Mohali, in various capacities.
Malhotra claimed that he was informed by them that OXL Group had been imparting multimedia education and was affiliated to universities recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and other statutory organisations.
It was claimed that the courses offered by the institute were recognised by the Karnataka State Open University, Mysore, and that a bachelor of sciences (animation & multimedia) degree will be given to students who qualify. As such, he paid ₹2.9 lakh for the three-year course and got admission in the 2013-14 session.
However, Malhotra alleged, no exams were conducted and upon enquiring, he was told there was a dispute between the institute and the university that will be resolved soon. Still no exams were held and instead of a degree, he was issued a diploma certificate on December 3, 2015.
Institute can’t issue degree: UGC
Through an RTI application, Malhotra said he was informed by the UGC that a state university was not allowed to operate beyond the state limits and the institute could not issue a degree.
Further, Karnataka State Open University was not recognised from 2013-18 and therefore, students could not have been enrolled for the 2013-14 academic year.
On June 10, 2022, Malhotra filed a complaint with the Chandigarh inspector general of police (IGP) that was forwarded to the Sector 34 station house officer (SHO).
The police informed the court that efforts were made to trace the accused, but no clue was found and the complainant also did not join the inquiry despite being issued a notice.
It was then that the court observed that the police had no right or power to carry out a preliminary inquiry to verify the credibility of the information supplied by the complainant and directed the Sector-34 SHO to register an FIR. The compliance report had to be submitted by February 28 but after the parties reached a compromise on January 10, the court decided that the FIR is not required.
