Excess fees collected from SC/ST students in TN refunded: Govt tells HC

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government has told the Madras High Court that all the government and private colleges in the state have been told not to collect extra fees for issuing/processing application forms for admissions and the extra fees collected by the colleges had been refunded to the students.

In a status report filed before the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu on September 22, the government stated that following an earlier order of the bench, the education department had swung into action, as a result of which the colleges had refunded the extra fees collected from the candidates, more particularly the SC/ST students.

"In view of the instructions issued by the State for excess collection not to be made and even the refund having been tendered, nothing remains of the petition and the same is disposed of," the bench said.

In its PIL, the Tamil Nadu Universities and Colleges SC/ST Teachers' Association in Ullagaram, represented by its secretary K Kannaiyan, contended the colleges had wrongfully collected fees in excess of the rates prescribed there for and even when exemptions had been granted to the SC/ST candidates by a Government Order.

It had prayed for a direction to the authorities concerned to initiate appropriate action against a city college in Velacherry for collecting the application fees from SC/ST students in gross violation of the GO dated September 2, 1998 of the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare department and another one issued last year of the Higher Education department and consequently direct the institution to refund the illegal fees collected from the students in the name of application processing fee.