She paid ₹9.5 lakh.
Attended classes for six days.
Walked out.
And then the real fight began.
Meet the student at the center of this story.
A Kalinga Institute of Dental Sciences graduate. Cleared NEET 2024. Landed an MDS seat in Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery at Haldia Institute of Dental Sciences and Research through third-round counselling.
On Aug 29, 2024, she paid her fees.
On Sept 2, she started classes.
On Sept 10, she was done.
Her reason was blunt: the college doesn't have proper educational facilities and guidance.
She asked for her money back. And her original certificates — including her bachelor's degree.
The college had a different idea.
👉 Pay the remaining ₹18 lakh of the full ₹27 lakh fee…
👉 Then we'll hand back your documents.
Imagine that. You quit in six days, and they want you to cough up the rest of a course you'll never attend — just to retrieve your own degree.
So she went to the Calcutta High Court.
The college's counsel tried a smart pivot.
Yes, we're UGC-recognised… but we're actually governed by the Dental Council of India and the West Bengal Dental Counseling Committee. UGC isn't our regulator.
Translation: that refund rule doesn't apply to us.
Her counsel pointed to one document:
She quit on Sept 10. Comfortably inside the window.
The single bench wasn't buying the jurisdiction gymnastics.
The college is UGC-recognised. So the college will follow UGC's refund policy. Full stop.
The order:
This isn't just a refund. It's a precedent.
Thousands of NEET, JEE and counselling students lose seats to private colleges that hold fees and certificates hostage every single year.
The UGC rule has existed for a while. Enforcement hasn't.
Now a High Court has said the quiet part out loud:
If you take UGC's recognition, you take UGC's rules.
One student. Six days. ₹9.5 lakh.
And a ruling that just made every withdrawing student's life a little easier.
That's all for now!
