Chhattisgarh Dental College and Research Institute v. Shweta Kabra
Background
A private dental college in Chhattisgarh admitted students in 2003-04 and 2004-05 at fees fixed in its own prospectus (up to Rs. 2,12,500). After the Supreme Court's 2003 ruling in Islamic Academy of Education directed states to set up fee-fixation committees, a committee fixed the college's fee at Rs. 1,25,000 per year, expressly effective only from the 2005-06 academic year onward. Despite this, the Chhattisgarh High Court's 2010 judgment directed the lower fee to apply even to students admitted before 2005-06 and ordered refunds of the excess fee already collected, prompting the college to appeal.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court agreed with the college that the High Court erred in applying the fee-fixation committee's rate retrospectively to students admitted before the 2005-06 academic year, since the committee itself had fixed that rate to take effect only from 2005-06 onward. Since the college had already refunded the money to students under an earlier interim Supreme Court order (with students furnishing bank guarantees in return for release of their academic documents), the Court permitted the college to now encash those bank guarantees, effectively reversing the refund. The appeals were disposed of on this basis.
Lesson Learnt
A fee-fixation committee's determination applies only prospectively from the date it specifies, and cannot be used to force refunds for students admitted before that effective date, even where interim compliance had already occurred pending the appeal.