In
a relief to 91 students, the Supreme Court has ordered a medical college in
Uttarakhand to release their original documents withheld by the institute for
non-payment of fee arrears.
A
bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud took note of the submissions of
senior lawyer Gaurav Agarwal and advocate Tanvi Dubey, appearing for the
doctors, that the students will neither be able to register themselves as
medical practitioner nor can take up examinations for higher studies for lack
of original documents.
The bench, which also comprised justices J B
Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, ordered Shri Guru Ram Rai Institute of Medical and
Health Sciences College at Dehradun in Uttarakhand to release the documents on
payment of Rs 7.5 lakh by students who have completed their MBBS course and the
requisite internship.
The
students will have to give an undertaking that they will be paying the
remaining fee arrears, the top court said on Monday.
The
medical college had earlier increased Rs 5 lakh annual fees to Rs 13.22 lakh
for students who had got the admissions under the All India quota.
The
college had increased the annual fees of Rs 4 lakh per annum to Rs 9.78 lakh
for those who had taken admissions under the state quota.
The
fee hike was made applicable with retrospective effect.
The
students, who completed their MBBS course and also did the one-year internship,
had challenged the legality of the decision of the college asking them to pay
"exorbitant arrears" to get their original documents.
"Without
original documents, the doctors are forced to sit idle at home. They can
neither participate in counselling of NEET-PG nor start their practice in a
hospital," Dubey said.
The
matter has been seeing a series of litigation for the past few years and a
petition was also pending at the Nainital High Court against retrospective fee
hike.
The
students had challenged the order asking them to pay around Rs 38 lakh, the
lawyer said.
The
counsel for students argued that the decision was "arbitrary and
forcefully imposed on them" for a course they have already completed.
"If
they were aware earlier, they would have never chosen a college in Uttarakhand
since they were getting colleges in their home states at a lesser fee,"
the lawyer said.
The
high court had directed the students to pay the entire amount in nine
instalments.
The
college had issued a notice stating that internship cannot start unless
payments are made.
Senior
advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the college, said often it gets
difficult for the colleges in such scenarios to keep track of the pending dues
from students after documents are released.
Some
of the students simply vanish and in some cases, the cheques, given towards the
arrears of the fees, have bounced.