Dismissing petitions from M. Arunkumar and 67 other 2-year MBA/MCA students in various self-financing colleges and holding their admission as illegal, Justice V. Ramasubramanian of the Madras high court said, “After admitting students contrary to regulations, these institutions hide behind the back of students and indulge in shadow litigation, as they know pretty well that they cannot plead either equity or sympathy.”
“It will be open to the students to seek refund of the fees that they had paid and also seek compensation against the colleges that admitted them contrary to the regulations. As and when the students seek refund of fees, the institutions shall refund the fees in full without any deductions. The question of compensation is open to be raised by the students in separate proceedings against the institutions,” said the court.
December 10, 2010, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) introduced the minimum eligibility marks for admission to MBA/MCA courses. As the petitioners were admitted without eligibility marks, the university did not permit them to take the examination. The students filed the petitions and obtained interim orders earlier to write the examination.
The judge said the regulations were notified in the gazette on December 10, 2010 itself. Therefore, the colleges cannot feign ignorance of the publication of the regulations.
The petitioners and the colleges agree that they were aware of the communications issued by the director of technical education. “The admission of the petitioners to these courses was illegal and this court cannot approve of such illegal admissions by showing misplaced sympathy upon the students”, the judge said.