HC orders Rs 50,000 relief each for 450 BDS students

CHANDIGARH: Just about a fortnight after a Single Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed petitions by students admitted to dental colleges on basis of merit in Class XII examination, a Division Bench today ordered interim compensation of Rs50,000 per student.

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 2

Just about a fortnight after a Single Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed petitions by students admitted to dental colleges on basis of merit in Class XII examination, a Division Bench today ordered interim compensation of Rs50,000 per student.

Fee refund has also been ordered. The amount is to be paid by the institutes. The development is significant as there are about 450 BDS students who were admitted to private unaided dental colleges.

The Bench also made it clear that private institutes cannot admit students on basis other than the common entrance test. “It is commercial decision of the private institutes to start dental education. Merely because they are not able to admit students in terms of the statutory regulations, such fact cannot be treated as an exceptional circumstance,” the Bench ruled.

The students had challenged Baba Farid University of Health Sciences’ decision of not issuing registration numbers to them. Dismissing the appeals, the Bench of Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice Lisa Gill also held that the students were not entitled to continue with their courses as there admissions were not in consonance with legal provisions.

“We deem it appropriate to direct the institutes who have admitted students in violation of directions of the state government to refund the fee deposited along with a sum of Rs50,000 per student as an interim compensation for wasting the precious academic life of the students.

“Such compensation shall be without prejudice to any other remedy civil or criminal, which a student may wish to avail against the institutes concerned. The amount of fee and the compensation so determined shall be paid to the students within three months,” the Bench added.

The Bench also asserted that the university and the private institutions were informed on September 22, 2014, that admissions would not be regularised and would rather be cancelled. Again on October 1, 2014, the university informed the institutions not to send registration return of the candidates.

A public notice was also issued by the government warning the students of admission on the basis of marks obtained in the qualifying examination.