Refund 50% of hostel fee: Punjab and Haryana High Court to Patiala Law University

Patiala, November 22

The Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law (RGNUL), Patiala, will charge only 50 per cent of the hostel fee from its students of the BA-LLB course, who had moved the court in 2020 and demanded reduction in charges over economic crisis caused by the Covid pandemic. The Punjab and Haryana High Court, in its judgment, has ordered the university to refund 50 per cent of the fee within four weeks (if deposited).

The students had approached the HC requesting a relief from payment of full semester fee of Rs 1.13 lakh in 2020. Senior advocate Chetan Mittal, while seeking the reduction, cited economic stress caused by the pandemic on students’ families. The petitioners also added that the campus had remained shut for classes and the university did not incur expenditure on the same.

In 2021, the university directed the students to submit all pending fee before appearing in semester-end exams. Later, it provided a fee waiver of Rs 14,872 and also offered to accommodate and resolve further fee-related issues.

In a previous order, the single Bench of Justice Sudhir Mittal had stated that the university’s 17.8 per cent reduction in fee (waiver of Rs 14,872 plus cancellation of Rs 5,000 annual increase in fee) was adequate.

However, the court of Justices Augustine George Masih and Vikram Aggarwal while disposing of the matter observed that the university had “charged only 25% of the rent from the contractors of mess, canteens, shops and others, and there is absolutely no justification in charging the entire hostel rent from the students”.

It directed that in addition to the benefits that have already been given to the students, the university “would charge only 50% of the hostel rent from the students for the period in question and refund the remaining amount to the students within a period of four weeks.”