COIMBATORE: Students from a private Arts and Science College sought the Collector’s intervention in getting their original graduation certificates from the institution as the management refused to provide them their certificates, demanding them to pay their fees.
In a petition by 17 students, who recently completed B Com from Nyruthi Arts and Science College at Kariampalayam in Annur Taluk to Collector Kranthi Kumar Pati, they said that the college is denying to provide them their original certificates without paying their tuition fee which they already paid prior their exam.
They said, “When we tried to pay our final year term fee online, there was an error. Hence, all 17 of us from the same department paid the fees to a professor from our department through GPay and in cash as he asked us to do it before appearing for the exams. The college principal and administration know about it.
Now, after the exam, when we went to collect our certificates, the management demanded us to pay Rs 22,000 including term fee of Rs 12,000 and Rs 10,000 as a penalty and when we told them that we had already paid the money to the professor, they said that the professor did not pay the amount to them.
We lodged a complaint with the Annur police station as they said that they can issue certificates only on payment of fees. However, no action has been taken up so far.” On receiving the petition, the collector instructed the joint director of college education to investigate the matter.
When TNIE contacted K Kumaravel, the principal of the college, he said, “Administration did not know about the students handing over the amount to the staff. We allowed the student to write the exam on a compassionate basis with the condition that they pay their fee while receiving their certificates.
The staff who allegedly collected the amount from the students has not come to work since August. We could not reach him as his phone was switched off. Hence, we terminated him. His certificates are with us. We have received complaints against him from the students. We are about to file a complaint against him to the police.”