Bihar’s 2015 fee waiver policy: HC orders refund to students within a month

On February 3, 2015, the Bihar government had taken a policy decision to provide free education to all girl students as well as those belonging to SC and ST communities up to post-graduation level.

The Patna High Court has directed all the Universities in Bihar to immediately refund the fee taken from scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and girl students within a month in accordance with the government policy of free education to them up to the post-graduation level.

The Patna high court (HT Photo)

“Henceforth, no educational institution shall charge fee contrary to the terms of the 2015 government resolution. The fee realized by certain universities from these students is patently an affront to state policy and must be refunded at once. Violation of the order by institutions shall tantamount to contempt and initiation of proceedings for derecognition,” says an order by the bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Sanjay Kumar last week.

The court referred to the affidavit of the additional chief secretary (education), mentioning steps taken to publicise the 2015 government resolution, including advertisement in leading newspapers, and its directions on June 23, 2022, to universities to refund the fee realised from exempted students.

On February 3, 2015, the Bihar government had taken a policy decision to provide free education to all girl students as well as those belonging to SC and ST communities up to post-graduation level. The government would reimburse the financial loss to institutions.

It was then said that the move would cost the state exchequer ₹29 crore annually and benefit nearly 4.05 lakh students in the three categories. The move was ostensibly necessitated by the finding that enrolment of the three categories in PG dropped significantly.

However, many institutions continued to charge fee, citing lack of reimbursement from the government and financial challenges.

On the HC direction, the previous additional chief secretary had convened a meeting of vice chancellors of all universities to ensure that the fee illegally recovered was refunded to the students forthwith. An amount of ₹6 crore was also refunded to Patna University once, but other universities could not get properly compensated, as the government did not get claims from them.

“The problem of reimbursement had started surfacing the very first year after the colleges started charging fee on the pretext that it would be refunded on getting funds form the government. Many college principals had then sought reimbursement from their respective universities also, but things remained unattended and gradually reached this stage,” said a college principal.