HC denies Rs 29 lakh MBBS fee refund to medico who took admission in DY Patil Medical College

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has recently rejected a petition of a candidate, who sought a refund of Rs 29 lakh MBBS fee and the original documents that she had submitted with the medical college in lieu of the alloted MBBS seat for the academic year 2019

Dismissing the petition, a bench of Justice SC Dharmadhikari and Gautam Patel, in its verdict on September 23, stated that there can be no question of MBBS fee refund without proper resignation application to the appropriate authority within the specified time.

The matter was brought before the bench by the candidate, who had scored an All India Rank of 253241 in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), 2019 and secured admission under the management quota, via online Centralized Admission Process (CAP) in DY Patil Medical College, Pune after attending the mandatory counselling by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC).

She completed the entire admission procedure including the submission of original documents and even paid 1st-year MBBS fee. Soon after, the candidate requested a cancellation of the admission and a refund of the fees citing financial crunches.

However, the medical college denied the refund. Following this, the candidate moved the court alleging that the medical college has illegally retained the money.

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The petitioner's advocate contended that the candidate applied for the refund and cancellation of admission before 25th July 2019, which was the extended deadline for resigning of Round-1 seats. The petitioner had sent an email in this regard to the college on July 24th 2019. Thereby, seeking a refund of Rs 29 lakh given as admission fee for the first year MBBS course.

The court after hearing the contentions made by advocates for the student and the medical college, stated that the petition dealt with two distinct issues viz. resigning of the assigned medical seat after accepting it and secondly the refund of MBBS fee submitted towards the same.

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The court noted that there was no evidence to substantiate that the petitioner made the cancellation application in time to the competent authority and moreover, approaching the medical college directly for revoking admission is wholly impermissible.

The court further noted that the MCC and the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) have their own cancellation policies and a participating medical college has no right to cancel the admissions of any candidate.

Subsequently, the court dismissed the plea stating

... the court does not think that the petitioner should be assisted, who thought that they can pressurize the medical college via the statutory authorities to cancel the admission, to refund the MBBS fees and to return the original documents.

The court ruled;

"We find that the(admission cancellation) policy is salutary and in the public interest. It is intended to stop persons from speculating in educational seat allotments and, particularly, in medical admissions which are highly coveted. It is for this reason that there is an open, structured and transparent process in place for admissions, counselling, various CAP rounds, mop-up rounds, allotments, reporting, undertaking, acceptance, etc. There is a time frame for each stage with not only dates but the latest timings noted. There is also such a time-frame for the resignation of Round 1 seats and a mention of to whom this had to be addressed."

As per a recent media report in TOI, the court added;

"If the resignation is not accepted by the appropriate authority on an application properly made and within time, there is no question of cancellation or refund."