CHENNAI: The Madras High Court dismissed a plea filed by two Pondicherry private medical colleges challenging an order directing them to provide a stipend to a group of PG students. The first bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Vijaykumar Gangapurwala and Justice PD Audikesavalu rejected the colleges’ claim of equitable set-off towards the pending fee from the students and held stipend is a right of a PG student who works in the hospital.
The appeal was moved by Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute and Aarupadai Veedu Medical College Hospital in Pondicherry. A group of PG students at the institutes had grievances in payment of stipend for 2017-18 to 2019-20. The court directed the colleges to pay the stipend within four weeks.
Contending the order, the institutions moved the appeal stating the students had a dispute in fee payment. On June 16, 2017, a division bench of the court directed the fee payable shall be fixed by the Pondicherry Fee Committee. It was challenged before the SC which passed an interim stay against the order. The colleges submitted that if a student claims payment of the stipend, they must be alive to the fact that the fee towards education received is also to be paid.
“All students have left the colleges and if the stand of the college is accepted by the Apex Court, it will be difficult for the colleges to recover the fees from the students,” they said.