Meghana Choukkar, Bengaluru, DH News Service, Sep 17 2017, 1:58 IST
The report, submitted on September 15, pertains to complaints received by the committee regarding admissions to engineering colleges through CET and ComedK in the year 2017-18.
The Admission Overseeing Committee has recommended to the state government to take action against engineering colleges which were refusing to refund fees, as per regulations, to students who had surrendered their seats.
Action has also been recommended against colleges withholding original certificates. The names of colleges against which complaints have been received and the amount they withheld have been made public on the website of the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA).
The report, submitted on September 15, pertains to complaints received by the committee regarding admissions to engineering colleges through CET and ComedK in the year 2017-18.
The complaints were from students who had surrendered seats after they were allotted better seats in subsequent rounds of counselling. The colleges first allotted to them were withholding their original documents and refusing to refund the fee.
According to a notification by the University Grants Commission (UGC) issued in December 2016, taking certificates into institutional custody is prohibited. A clear refund policy has also been laid out in the notification.
There are 20 complaints, with a majority against colleges in Bengaluru. In some cases, the fee to be refunded is as high as Rs 1.6 lakh and Rs 1.2 lakh.
On receiving the complaints, the committee headed by retired Justice Anand Byrareddy issued notices and directions to erring colleges. Some partly complied with the order by returning the documents but did not refund the fee.
The chairperson has recommended that the government should direct the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) to address each complaint and direct the listed colleges to refund the amount. The report recommends that colleges should also refund an interest of 18% per annum from the date of the college receiving the amount till refund. If the institute fails to comply with the direction within 30 days, the committee has recommended that double the withheld amount should be collected as fine.
In the case of document retention, the committee has recommended that VTU should direct colleges to return certificates and collect a fine of Rs 50,000 if they fail to comply.
In a previous report, the committee had also listed the names of medical and dental colleges which were collecting more fees than what the government had approved. The report lays out the extra amount collected and has recommended action against these colleges.