APG varsity told to refund registration fee

SHIMLA: In an important order which would act as deterrent to private universities charging hefty registration fee, Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission (HPPEIRC) has ruled that “charging of heavy registration fee is deviation from approved fee structure and illegal”.

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 29

In an important order which would act as deterrent to private universities charging hefty registration fee, Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission (HPPEIRC) has ruled that “charging of heavy registration fee is deviation from approved fee structure and illegal”.

Passing the orders in a complaint filed against APG Shimla University by Rajinder Singh, father of Shubham Sharma, who had taken admission in B.Tech (Mech) and attended classes only from August 6 to August 16, 2014 for not entertaining the request for refund of fees etc, the regulator said that “Charging of hefty registration fee by private universities is deviation from approved fee structure and illegal” and directed the university to refund the registration fee of Rs 10,000 and other charges amounting Rs 22,000.

The complainant said he had deposited Rs 81,500 with the APG Shimla University but due to a lot of travelling and health reasons could not continue the course. He requested the university to refund the security and some other charges but the university refused to make any refund.

The complainant approached the Regulatory Commission which asked the university to refund registration fee of Rs 10,000, security amounting Rs 10,000 and proportionate transportation charges of Rs 12,000. The commission maintained that the university is entitled to charge fee only under four heads, namely tuition and all other fees (annual in two equal installments) Rs. 95,000, institutional development charges (annual) Rs. 10,000, caution money (one time) Rs. 10,000 and hostel security (one time) Rs 5,000.

However, the respondent university charged Rs 10,000 as registration fee, Rs 37,500 as tuition fee, Rs 10,000 as development fee, Rs 10,000 as security and Rs 13,000 as transportation fee.

The commission referred to the copy of letter sent by the University Grants commissions to all the state and private universities on June 21,2011 to arrive at some conclusion and said that letter clearly state that “Universities/ Institutions have already been requested by the UGC to maintain a waiting list of students/ candidates and in the event of a student withdrawing before the starting of the course, the waitlisted candidates should be given admission against the vacant seat and entire fee collected from the student, after a deduction of the processing fee of not more than Rs. 1000 shall be refunded to the student withdrawing from the programme.”