Mumbai: After 12-year fight, man gets Rs 3 lakh MBA fee refund

Mumbai: After a 12-year battle, a Ghatkopar man is all set to get back Rs 3 lakh he paid as fees for an MBA admission at SVKM’S NMIMS University, which he subsequently cancelled.
The student, Tapan Joshi, had cancelled the admission in 2009 as he opted for another college. Holding the university guilty of deficiency of service, a district consumer forum held that the single day window for admission cancellation was too short a period.
The forum said the university should have only retained the cancellation charge of Rs 10,000 and refunded the balance to the complainant rather than retaining the entire sum of Rs 3 lakh.
“To say that they are not service providers on the one hand and to unfairly retain Rs 3 lakh for no reason on the other is illegal as well as unjust enrichment, which, we opine, is deficiency of service and unfair trade practice,” the forum said. It directed the university to pay Rs 30,000 to Joshi towards compensation.
The Vile Parle-based premier educational institute had refused to refund the amount claiming that his cancellation had left a seat vacant.
The forum, however, said that despite having complete information at its disposal, the university neither made any detailed disclosure in support of the averments nor relied on any documentary proof. “No further information has been disclosed about the total number of seats that were available for that relevant academic year in FT-MBA, Banking, the list of students enrolled and the list of students who completed the course in the reference year. Under the circumstances, we opine that the benefit of doubt should go to the complainant that the seat vacated by his cancellation was subsequently filled in,” the consumer forum said in its order.
Joshi submitted the complaint before the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Mumbai suburban, in October 2010. He said that after he secured admission in the university on June 18, 2009, he paid the tuition fees. He further said that on August 1, 2009, he requested the university to cancel his admission and sought a refund. However, he did not receive the money.