College struggle: How I got my refund

We asked readers to write to us about how they fought with their colleges to get the refund of fees paid from their college/institute/university in the event they dropped out of a course mid-way, were offered unapproved courses by the institute or found deficiency in its services.

Here's Mahavir Chopda's successful struggle against his institute.

As you rightly pointed out in the article published today, Get your fees refunded. These students did!, the one-sided rules unilaterally declared by institutes have no validity in the eyes of law even if they have been accepted by the students.

The article indeed creates awareness among students of their right to get a refund from institutes on withdrawing admission.

Here's the story of my struggle against NMIMS University for refund of MBA course fees:

I have passed through a similar harrowing experience and have got a favourable ruling from the Hon'ble Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum at Bandra, Mumbai against the well-known SVKM's NMIMS University, Mumbai (Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies University). The ruling had come just a few months back -- on July 23, 2010.

I had fought for almost four years all alone, without any lawyer. I took admission to the full time MBA course of NMIMS in March 2006 by paying a fees of Rs 1,36,650.

The course had commenced only in July 2006. Later I cancelled my admission in August 2006. NMIMS, citing its rules, only refunded me a paltry Rs 1,000.

Did you ever go through a similar experience? Share your story with other students!

Write to us getahead@rediff.co.in (subject line: 'My college struggle') and we'll publish the best responses right here on Rediff.com.

Numerous letters to NMIMS

This was bizarre. I wrote numerous letters to them for 18 months but they did not pay heed to my requests. I had also warned NMIMS that I would sue them and expose their unethical and illegal acts in the media but the University authorities did not pay heed to my warnings.

Effective use of RTI

I filed an RTI applicaiton in February 2008 asking for the admission dates of various students, the cancellation dates, and the amount of fees retained by the University because of the cancellation.

NMIMS tried its best to not disclose the information. However I appealed to the CIC which ruled in my favour in March 2009.

As far as I know, this was the first instance when the CIC had ruled that a deemed university like NMIMS which was not a state-owned university, also falls under the purview of RTI Act.

The information was then provided to me by NMIMS and it revealed that it had admitted students even after I had withdrawn my admission from the institute!

Did you ever go through a similar experience? Share your story with other students!

Write to us getahead@rediff.co.in (subject line: 'My college struggle') and we'll publish the best responses right here on Rediff.com.

Consumer court ruling against NMIMS

Meanwhile I had also filed a case in the consumer forum. Along with case-laws and relevant facts, I also provided the above information gained through RTI to the consumer forum. The Hon'ble Consumer Forum finally made judgment in my favour.

It asked NMIMS to refund proportionate fees with interest and costs.

PS: Though NMIMS has made an attempt to appeal before the State Commission, it is worhtwhile noting that the Hon'ble State Commission till now has refused to grant a stay on the order fo the Hon'ble District Forum and has not admitted the appeal as of now.

Did you ever go through a similar experience? Share your story with other students!

Write to us getahead@rediff.co.in (subject line: 'My college struggle') and we'll publish the best responses right here on Rediff.com.