Info panel head slams AICTE

Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has taken exception to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for expressing helplessness in ensuring refund of fees to students seeking them in Karnataka. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Feb 18, 2009, 23:16:05 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has taken exception to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for expressing helplessness in ensuring refund of fees to students seeking them in Karnataka.

Gandhi, while hearing an appeal of Right to Information applicant Aneesh Bansal, who had deposited Rs 50,000 with Comed K, a consortium of various dental, medical and engineering colleges in Karnataka, said the council should ensure that its "writ runs in colleges which it gives affiliation to".

Bansal's son had in 2007 deposited the amount as fees for admission in Ramaiha Institute of Technology-Bangalore with Comed K, the agency that conducted the entrance test and counseling of students for admissions in over 40 professional colleges in the state.

But when Bansal asked for a refund of fees as his son took admission in another institute, Comed K refused to refund the fees. According to the AICTE rules, the institutes are required to refund the entire fees after deducting service charges if students vacate their seats. But the guidelines don't cover organisations such as Comed K.

Bansal had then complained to the grievance cell of the AICTE, which sought a reply from the institute. The institute said the fees were with Comed K and it could not refund them on the consortium's behalf.

Bansal filed an RTI application asking the AICTE what action had been taken against his complaint. The AICTE forwarded the institute's letter expressing its helplessness in getting the fees refunded.

Gandhi found the situation strange, as the AICTE was still seeking a legal opinion on how to redress Bansal's grievance eight months after he had lodged a complaint with topmost technical education regulatory body in India.

He said: "The appellant is being told that the information on refund of his fees cannot be provided since the front of Comed K is beyond the pale of all regulation. The AICTE should ensure its regulations are fully applicable."

Commenting on the technical education scenario, Gandhi, in his order on Monday, said engineering colleges affiliated to the AICTE appear to have found an indigenous method of flouting the rules and regulations of the council.

Even though the AICTE said the fees should be refunded, Comed K’s refusal to do so is an indication of the AICTE's helplessness, Gandhi said in the order.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.