The SC, in a unique judgement, has ruled in favour of a student's right to education by rejecting a bid by college to extract a bank guarantee as fee.
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court, in a unique judgement, has ruled in favour of a student's right to education by rejecting a bid by an Indore dental college to extract a bank guarantee as fee to admit a poor pupil.
A bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan on Friday ordered Indore's private College of Dental Sciences and Hospital to admit Ankit Jain on the basis of a personal bond from his father instead of the entire three-year course fees that the student was unable to offer.
The plea by the dental college, asking the court to direct Ankit to submit a bank guarantee worth Rs.330,000 as fees for the entire three-year course in one go, first came up for hearing on Thursday before the apex court bench of Justice B.N. Agarwal and Justice P.P. Naolekar.
The bench asked counsel for the college Punit Jain, "Under what law do you demand bank guarantee as fee from a student?"
In his defence, the counsel referred to a case that had come up before a five-judge constitution bench in the case of Islamic Academy of Education versus Karnataka.
In that case the bench had observed that an institute, wary of the possibility of a student leaving the course mid-stream, may demand a personal bond or a bank guarantee as fee for the entire course period. That was on observation and not a ruling.
In this case, the Indore college was unwilling to admit Ankit who was ready to submit his first year's fee worth Rs.110,000 along with a personal bond from his father to pay his remaining fees in due course.
But the college insisted on a bank guarantee as it was wary of the student's poverty and apprehended that he might drop out mid-stream without completing the course and paying the fees.
Faced with the refusal of admission, Ankit had approached the Jabalpur High Court, which ordered the college to admit him without the bank guarantee or the bond.
In his petition, Ankit had said that his "father was a poor man, having no assets to furnish a bank guarantee". He had pleaded for admission saying that even the first year's fee he was paying had been procured after selling his late mother's ornaments.
The dental college then challenged the high court ruling in the Supreme Court.
Taken aback by the college's demand for a bank guarantee from the poor student, the bench of Justice Agarwal and Justice Naolekar even warned that the college "could be derecognised for this demand".
"Do admit him. Why do you presume that everybody is dishonest and would run away without paying your fee?"
But the college had nothing else than its fees on mind. The counsel kept repeating: "But who will pay my fee, my lord? What will happen to my fee?"
Exasperated with the plea, the bench adjourned the hearing till Friday.
The matter was listed for hearing Friday before the bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan.
The bench, following a brief hearing, ordered the college to admit Ankit on the basis of a personal bond from his father, instead of a Rs.330,000 bank guarantee.
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