College told to refund hostel fee with interest

The district consumer disputes redressal forum recently directed an engineering college here to refund the hostel fee of a student as he had opted out of the course soon after joining the college.

The district consumer disputes redressal forum recently directed an engineering college here to refund the hostel fee of a student as he had opted out of the course soon after joining the college.

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The forum observed that the complainant never availed the hostel facility.

The order, passed by forum president RS Bahmani and member Mukesh Sharma, asked the college to return Rs 48,000 fee along with an interest of 24% per annum from the date of deposit till payment.

The forum also asked the college to pay the student a compensation of Rs 50,000 for "mental agony" during the course of hearings.

The complainant, Saurabh Nagariya, had enrolled in the aeronautical engineering course of Guru Gram Institute of Technology in 2010.

According to Nagariya, he moved to a different college in Faridabad after completing the first semester. Since he had not availed the hostel facility, he asked for a refund of the same from the college authority.

The consumer forum has held the college responsible for deficiency in providing services to the complainant as his repeated requests were not acknowledged. The college did not respond to the consumer forum's notices after which it decided to move ex parte (without hearing the other party) in October 2012.