Refund of my fees from college because not satisfied therefore leave

574 votes

Hi, you may proceed against them. First of all you need to send a legal notice for refunding the fee giving time of one month and if there are not refunding the same, you may file case for that in consumer forum.

Advocate Ganesh Singh LawRato

940 votes

The most cited case in this regard is that of Bhupesh Khurana and Others versus Vishwa Budha Parishad (2001 JRC 240).

After thorough understanding of the complaint, the State Commission held that the ‘complainant’ was a ‘consumer’ as she had hired the services of the university for consideration. For this, the State Commission relied upon the decision of the National Commission in a case wherein it was held that imparting of education by an educational institution for consideration fell within the ambit of ‘service’ as defined in the Consumer Protection Act. Fees are paid for services to be rendered by way of imparting education by the educational institution. If there is no rendering of service, question of payment of fee will not arise. The complainant had hired the services of the respondents for consideration, so she was a consumer as defined in the Consumer Protection Act.

The court concluded: “In the case of the university or an educational institution, their nature of activity is ex hypothesi education, which is a service to the community. Ergo, the university is an industry.” Before arriving at this judgement, the court had here referred to the decision of the Supreme Court in Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board versus A Rajappa and Others case (AIR 1978 SC 548).

In 2003, in the matter of Usmania Islamic Academy versus State of Karnataka being argued in the Supreme Court, a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, Justice VN Khare and Justice SN Variyavaha pronounced a detailed order holding educational institutes answerable before consumer forums by discussing every aspect covered by educational institutes in providing education to students.

This powerful bench also directed Universities Grant Commission (UGC) to frame rules on the basis of this order. UGC accordingly framed guidelines for universities that read:

They cannot retain more than Rs 1,000 as proportionate fee in case student leaves the institute.
They cannot retain the original certificates.
They cannot demand fee for the entire course, can only ask fee for one term.

Hence you can file a case against the institute after consulting a good lawyer.

Thanks & Regards

Advocate Megha Kain LawRato