Civil Writ Petition No. 7627 of 2007 1 In the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, Chandigarh. Civil Writ Petition No. 7627 of 2007 Date of Decision: 1.4.2008 Parampreet Kaur …Petitioner Versus Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot and Others. …Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ASHUTOSH MOHUNTA HON’BLE MR.JUSTICE KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA Present: None for the petitioner. None for respondents No.1 and 2. Mr. S.K.Pabbi, Advocate for respondent No.3. Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia, J. Parampreet Kaur, petitioner, has preferred the present writ petition praying that direction be issued to the respondent-College to refund fee of Rs.35,000/- as petitioner has shifted to another College. It has been stated in the writ petition that petitioner passed her 10+2 examination in the year 2004. She appeared in Punjab Para Civil Writ Petition No. 7627 of 2007 2 Medical Entrance Test Examination for admission to B.Sc. (Nursing) course and was successful in getting admission to the said course against Government quota seat in respondent-College i.e. Dr. Shamlal Thapar Nursing College, Moga. She deposited a fee of Rs.35,000/- vide receipt No.401 dated 20.9.2004 (Annexure P2). It is stated in the writ petition that the petitioner vacated the seat before the second round of counseling and subsequently sought admission in Silver Oaks College of Nursing, Mohali and there she deposited a fee of Rs.67,000/-. It is not disputed that respondent No.3-College issued a cheque (Annexure P6/A) of Rs.31,500/- to the petitioner as a refund. The cheque was returned by the Bank vide its cheque return memo (Annexure P6) with objection that “Amount in words and figure differ”. It will be pertinent to mention here that in column of figures it is written as Rs.31,500/-, whereas in the column of words it has been written as “Rupees Thirty One Thousand and Five Thousand only”. The respondent-College has filed written statement. Learned counsel for the respondent-College has stated that even though it is admitted that petitioner has deposited fee of Rs.35,000/- on 20.9.2004 but the petitioner had taken admission in the Silver Oaks College of Nursing, Mohali, on 5.10.2004 before the second round of counseling of her own against Management Quota seat of that College and left the respondent-College in mid-stream, therefore, she is not entitled to the refund of fee. It has been stated that the cheque which was returned by the bank was issued in a routine manner because of clerical error but the petitioner is not entitled to refund of fee. The petitioner has placed on record notification (Annexure P1) Civil Writ Petition No. 7627 of 2007 3 issued by Government of Punjab, Department of Medical Education and Research (Health III Branch). Para 10 of the notification deals with the fee. It will be appropriate here to reproduce para 10.3 regarding private Colleges:- 10.3 Private Colleges (a) Fees ( Annual and provisional) Rs. College fee for BSc, BPT, BMLT 35,000 courses Note1 - These include all kinds of charges and nothing extra will be charged from the students under any head or guise. Note 2 - The fee will be payable on annual basis and the colleges will not insist on deposit of fee of the entire course in advance. At the most students can be asked to give a bond that they will be liable to pay the balance fee for the whole course even if they left in midstream. Note 3 - The fee shall be refunded/ adjusted if a candidate is shifted from one college to an other in second or subsequent counseling/operation of waiting list”. Para 11 of the said notification is regarding determination of merit for admission and para 11(e) is reproduced as under:- 11(e) Subsequent counseling - The second counseling will be organized to fill up the Civil Writ Petition No. 7627 of 2007 4 seats remaining vacant after the first counseling. The candidates will be free to exercise fresh options during the second counseling and the students can forgo any/all choices preferred earlier”. We fail to understand arguments of learned counsel for the respondent-College that since petitioner has left the College before second round of counseling, she will not be entitled for refund. Second counseling had to take place and, therefore, seat left could be filled. As per reply of the College, second round of counseling was scheduled after 5.10.2004. Vide Annexure P4 on 6.10.2004 petitioner had applied for refund. Therefore, it came to the knowledge of respondent-College before the second round of counseling that the petitioner will not be taking admission and the seat become vacant and could be filled by another candidate. Therefore, we hold that no prejudice has been caused to the College. This Court has held in a judgment dated 12.7.2007 in C.W.P. No. 5793 of 2007 (Aayuh Gupta v. Panjab University) that unless it could be shown that any prejudice is caused to the University, the fee paid by a candidate has to be returned. Having once issued the cheque (Annexure P6/A) on 6.11.2004, it is too late for the College now to take a plea that the petitioner is not entitled for the refund. After issuing a cheque, which, they say, was wrongly done by the College instead of honouring the cheque they had made petitioner to suffer by taking the course to litigation, by filing present writ petition. The present writ petition is allowed. The College is directed to refund the amount of cheque i.e. Civil Writ Petition No. 7627 of 2007 5 Rs.31,500/- to the petitioner within two months from today. Copy of this order be also sent to petitioner and respondents No.1 and 2 to ensure compliance. (Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia) Judge (Ashutosh Mohunta) Judge April 1, 2008 “DK”