Skip to main content

Kolkata B-school wins case against student asking for fees refund

 A Kolkata-based business school has won its battle against a post-graduate programme applicant with the apex consumer court reversing a subordinate commission’s direction to refund Rs.34,000 out of the admission fee deposited by her.

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission offered relief to Globsyn Business School and held that it was not wrong in refusing to refund the admission fee received from Mayuri Ghosh, a resident of Kolkata’s Durga Charan Doctor Road area.

Ghosh deposited Rs.35,000 as admission fee in April 2009 for a post-graduate course but sought a refund a month later citing a financial crunch and inability to pursue the course, which required a total fee of Rs.535,000.

“Admission fee deposited by complainant was not refundable and the complainant was not entitled to seek refund only on the ground of severe financial crises,” said national commission Presiding Member K.S. Chaudhari and Member B.C. Gupta.

The top consumer commission, in a recent order, also ruled that the business school was not deficient in service in rejecting Ghosh’s plea for a refund.

The business school had moved the national commission against the state consumer commission’s direction to refund Ghosh Rs.34,000.

The business school, based in the Salt Lake Electronic Complex, said as per the March 10, 2009, offer letter to Ghosh, the admission fee was non-refundable and the state commission erred in accepting her plea seeking a refund.

The national commission accepted the business school’s plea and said it “has not committed any deficiency in service in refusing refund of Rs.35,000 received as admission fee”.

“Consequently, the revision petition is to be allowed and the order passed by the state commission is set aside and complaint filed by Ghosh is dismissed with no order as to costs,” said Chaudhari.

The business school earlier contested the complaint filed by Ghosh in a district forum and submitted that she deposited the fee with the full knowledge of the condition that there would be no refund.

The institution said that of the 180 seats for the session in which Ghosh sought admission, 15 remained vacant.

While countering Ghosh’s plea for a refund, the business school said that it incurred an expense of Rs.141,667 per candidate towards the admission process and had suffered a loss of Rs.21,25,000 due the 15 vacant seats.

Citing the loss, the business school claimed that it was not in a position to refund Ghosh Rs.35,000 and sought the dismissal of her complaint.

Counsel for the business school cited an earlier case and claimed that “students seeking admission to professional colleges and even otherwise are fairly mature and are supposed to understand the full implications of filling the admission forms…”

The student, therefore, will have to be taken to be bound by the information supplied in the admission form and cannot be allowed to take a stand that may suit him at a given time, the business school said.

Ghosh now has the option of approaching the Supreme Court against the national consumer commission’s decision.

Article referred: http://www.firstpost.com/india/kolkata-b-school-wins-case-against-student-asking-for-fees-refund-903173.html

Comments

Most viewed this month

The recovery of vehicles by the financier not an offence - SC

Special Leave Petition (Crl.) No. 8907  of 2009 Anup Sarmah (Petitioner) Vs Bhola Nath Sharma & Ors.(Respondents) The petitioner submitted that  respondents-financer had forcibly taken away the vehicle financed by them and  illegally deprived the petitioner from its lawful possession  and  thus,  committed  a crime. The complaint filed by the petitioner had been  entertained  by  the Judicial Magistrate (Ist Class), Gauhati (Assam) in Complaint Case  No.  608 of 2009, even directing the interim custody of the vehicle (Maruti  Zen)  be given to the petitioner vide order dated  17.3.2009.  The respondent on approaching the Guwahati High  Court against this order, the hon'ble court squashed the criminal  proceedings  pending   before  the  learned Magistrate. After hearing both sides, the Hon'ble Supreme Court decided on 30th...

Vanishing promoters and languishing shareholders

Over Rs 60,000 crore of shareholders’ wealth is stuck in 1,450 companies suspended by the stock exchanges. More importantly, near 100 per cent pledging of promoter holding appears to be common in many of these companies. This, almost rules out any chance of the companies bouncing back. The suspension is for non-compliance of the listing norms. Vanishing Companies - Definition As per the definition stipulated by SEBI, any listed company, which raised moneythrough initial public offer and, thereafter, stopped operations, did not file returnseither with the RoC or SEBI and did not exist on the registered premises wastermed as vanishing.There are provisions under Companies Act under which companies are termedvanishing companies on satisfying certain conditions. it is provided a companywould be deemed to be a vanishing company, if it satisfies all the conditions given below : a) Failed to file returns with Registrar of Companies (ROC) for a period of two years; b) Failed to fil...

Property can be sold on power of attorney - Delhi High Court

As reported in the Hindusthan Times on 5th May:-  http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Property-can-be-sold-on-power-of-attorney/Article1-1054964.aspx In a judgment that will benefit lakhs of Delhi residents living in co-operative housing societies and DDA flats, the Delhi High Court has quashed a Delhi government circular banning property sale in the Capital through general power of attorney (GPA). The court found that the directions in the circular, issued by the revenue department on April 27 last year, were contrary to the Supreme Court judgment dated October 11, 2011. The HC order will increase the number of saleable properties in Delhi and could bring down the value of freehold properties. According to realty watchers, on an average, around 20% of properties are registered through GPA transfers — a common way of selling leasehold properties and those that don’t have a clear title. The judgment came on a petition filed by a company, Pace Developers and ...