[Telegraph] Rs 1 lakh-plus ragging refund

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New Delhi, March 30 (PTI): An engineering student who left college within three days of admission because of ragging will get a refund of his fees, the Delhi state consumer commission has ruled.

The Agra college, which had refused to return the fees, will also have to pay Deepak Chawala compensation and cough up a penalty. The refund and the compensation will total Rs 98,000. Another Rs 25,000 is to be deposited in the state consumer welfare fund as penalty, the consumer court ruled.

The commission bench headed by Justice J.D. Kapoor dismissed Anand Engineering College’s appeal, filed against a district consumer forum order directing it to refund the fees. It said the college’s argument that fees once paid cannot be returned was not maintainable as no one can be forced to pay without enjoying any service.

“The attitude of the appellant in this case was most reprehensible,” the commission said, awarding the compensation to Delhi resident Chawala.

The panel also accused the college of the “grossest kind of deficiency in service” for not “arresting the evil of ragging”.

Justice Kapoor said ragging “sometimes acts so heavily on the minds of students that there are instances when students have been driven to commit suicide”.

Chawala had taken admission to the Bachelor of Engineering course for the 2002-03 session. But he withdrew from the course after three days, unable to cope with ragging. He approached the college administration for a refund of his fees, but was turned down.

Chawala then moved the district consumer forum, which held the college guilty of deficiency in service and asked it to pay Rs 98,000 as compensation, including the refund.
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