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Bengaluru: Karnataka high court has directed Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education in Tumakuru, a deemed university, to pay Rs 15 lakh as compensation to Sanjana V Tumkur, a medical aspirant who was denied admission to the MBBS course in 2017-18 despite fulfilling all requirements. Home minister G Parameshwara is the current chancellor of the university, which is controlled by his family.
A division bench of Justice Anu Sivaraman and Justice K Manmadha Rao held the institution responsible for its “illegal demand” and failure to honour assurances made to the student, and ruled that the compensation must be disbursed within two months.
Sanjana had secured an all-India rank of 1,95,911 in NEET 2017 and participated in the counselling conducted by Siddhartha Academy on Sept 1, 2017. She submitted all original documents along with a demand draft of Rs 15.6 lakh towards the first-year fees.
She did not receive an acknowledgement or allotment letter despite oral assurances of admission. Days later, when the college insisted on a bank guarantee of Rs 52.5 lakh, she arranged and submitted it on Sept 8, 2017. However, the institution refused to accept it, saying the admission list had already been finalised.
Her counsel, Ajoy Kumar Patil, argued that students with lower ranks were admitted while Sanjana was unfairly excluded. He told the court the chancellor of the university issued a letter on Oct 11, 2017, assuring her of a free seat in the 2018-19 academic year, but that promise was never honoured.
Left with no choice, she secured admission at Basaveshwara Medical College through Karnataka Examinations Authority counselling in 2018, and ended up paying Rs 24.2 lakh as first-year fees.
Counters shot down
Siddhartha Academy countered that Sanjana had delayed approaching the court, filing a writ petition only in Feb 2018, and alleged that the chancellor’s letter was fabricated. The institution also argued that her bank guarantee had been submitted late and she sought to misuse the situation to obtain a seat without paying fees.
Rejecting these arguments, the bench observed that the assurance letter bore the signatures of the chancellor, the college principal, and Sanjana, and no complaint of coercion had ever been raised. “If said letter was obtained by force and coercion, no complaint of any nature was submitted before any authorities,” the court noted.
The judges held that Sanjana wasn’t at fault and had complied with the requirements in time. “She paid the first-year fees before the prescribed date, and also provided the bank guarantee immediately thereafter. Hence, we’re of the opinion that this is a fit case where compensation should be awarded,” the bench stated, fixing the compensation at Rs 15 lakh.
