BENGALURU: A city-based college has been asked to pay a compensation to a student and refund with interest the donation and tuition fee paid by her. The college did not confer her a degree for three years despite the fact that she had completed it successfully.
The student, S Rathi, a degree student from Ramamurthy Nagar, approached the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum after Bangalore City College delayed giving her the certificate.
The Bengaluru IV Additional District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum directed the college, run by Ramakrishna Education Trust, Kalyan Nagar, to refund the donation and tuition fee of `1.07 lakh.
This apart, the consumer forum has also directed the college to pay a compensation of `1 lakh and 6 per cent interest per annum on it from the date of complaint, and `5,000 as litigation charges to Rathi.
According to the order passed by the forum, Rathi had taken admission to BSc (Fashion and Apparel Design) in 2008-09 and completed the degree in June 2011 with First Class. But because of the college’s mistake, she lost out on a good career from 2011 to 2013.
She approached the forum under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1987, and claimed `3 lakh paid for the course and a compensation of `16.80 lakh, with litigation costs.
Though Rathi completed her course in May 2011, she was not awarded the Bachelor’s degree as she was not able to get her second semester marks card till the first week of March 2013; the exams were held in May 2009.
After she confronted the college over this, the principal threatened to never give her the marks card; it was eventually issued on February 21, 2013. The reason given was that she had not appeared for the theory paper in Computer Fundamentals and that hence, her result had been withheld.
But Rathi denied the allegations. She said there was no Computer Fundamentals course for the second semester in the academic year 2008-09. It was in the fourth semester with theory, practical and internal assessments. In the prospectus of the college, it is stated that the BSc (FAD) course consists of six semesters, and there is no Computer Fundamentals mentioned for the second semester.