CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has refused to order a self-financing medical college near Chennai to hand over the course certificates to an MBBS student whose fee amount of Rs 1.13 crore was seized by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on charges of her tuition fee being funded by Maoists.
The first division bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan also dismissed an appeal filed by the student, Puja Kumari of Bihar, challenging a 2024 order of a single judge dismissing her writ petition praying for directing the college to hand her course certificates.
The NIA had taken the action by invoking the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, to seize the amount from the Chettinad Academy of Research and Education, Kelambakkam, based on an FIR registered in Ranchi, in which the woman’s brother and uncle were extorting money for a banned Maoist organisation.
The woman had pursued her medical degree from the institution in Kelambakkam.
The bench noted the investigation established that the funds transferred into the bank account of the fifth respondent college towards the appellant’s education were directly traceable to illegal terrorist funding.
“While it may be true that the appellant is not directly arrayed as an accused, she cannot assert an equitable right to benefit from the fruits of a crime. The moment the NIA seized and appropriated the fee amount from the college, the appellant’s account with the institution legally defaulted to an unpaid status,” the bench said in the order pronounced on Wednesday.
Stating the college has already utilised its resources, infrastructure, and faculty to train the woman, it said forcing the institution to release the certificates when it has effectively received “zero clean currency” for her education would be a “gross miscarriage of equity and justice”.
The bench upheld the order of the single judge, and said the remedy for the woman lies before the competent special court for NIA cases.