HYDERABAD

F.A.No.1427/2005 AGAINST C.D.No.729/2002 DISTRICT FORUM-I, HYDERABAD..

Between:

Akbar,

S/o.Allauddin Nathani,

Aged about 21 years, Occ:Student,

R/o.C/o. SRAZALI B.LALANI,

75-76, Chiragali Lane,

Hyderabad- 500 002.                                                           ..Appellant/Complainant

            And

1. The Principal,

     Methodist Degree College,

     King Kothi Road, Abids,

     Hyderabad.

2. The Correspondent,

     Methodist Degree College,

     King Koti Road, Abids,

     Hyderabad.                                                                       Respondents/Opp.parties

Counsel for the Appellant: M/s.R.Gopikishore

Counsel for the Respondents: Mr.Pratap Narayan Sanghi

CORAM:THE HON’BLE JUSTICE D.APPA RAO, PRESIDENT.

AND

SMT.M.SHREESHA, MEMBER.

,

TWO THOUSAND EIGHT.

Oral Order:(Per Smt.M.Shreesha, Hon’ble Member)

***

Aggrieved by the order in C.D.No.729/2002 on the file of District Forum-I, Hyderabad, the complainant preferred this appeal.

The brief facts as set out  in the complaint are that the  complainant, who passed 12^th standard examination during March, 2000 from Maharashtra Board of secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Pune and come down to Hyderabad and applied for State level entrance examination for 3 year computer degree course from Osmania University called BCA.  The complainant passed the entrance examination and was qualified to study BCA and joined opposite party Degree College  in B.C.A. first year course.  The complainant paid Rs.30,000/- as first year fees in non-local quota and attended the college regularly and in the month of November, 2000, opposite party No.1 asked the complainant to furnish the certificate of residence at Hyderabad from M.R.O.  The complainant submitted that this certificate was not necessary as her was admitted under non-local quota,  however, he obtained a certificate from M.R.O., Hyderabad for the period he was residing at Hyderabad and submitted to opposite party No.1 but again on 4-2-2001 he was asked to furnish residential certificate for 4 years in Hyderabad.  The complainant submitted that after some time he came to know that the last date for sending applications to examination is over and hence the complainant approached Osmania University authorities, who told that minimum of 10 years residential certificate is required in respect of the complainant or his parents. The complainant submitted that he suffered mental torture due to the careless attitude of the opposite parties and could not attend the first year examination of 3 year B.C.A and had given number of representations to refund the fees paid and expenses incurred towards purchase of books, boarding, lodging etc. but there was no response from the opposite parties and submitted that his 19 year has been adversely affected due to the negligent attitude of the opposite parties.  Hence the complaint for a direction to the opposite parties to refund Rs.30,000/- along with 24% interest, Rs.70,000/- towards expenses, Rs.3,00,000/- towards mental agony and Rs.3,000/- towards costs.

Opposite party No.1 filed counter alleging that B.C.A. is the course recognized by Osmania University and the entrance test is periodically conducted by the University and there are certain rules and regulations published by the University from time to time in this regard.  Even at the time of purchasing the application forms by the respective candidates, they will be provided with a copy of rules and regulations which are being published by the University and that the complainant submitted his application and it was incomplete and since he promised to furnish all the documents, the admission was granted by the college.  They submitted that it is a well settled principal of law that the ignorance of law has no excuse and one cannot claim any benefit out of it.  Though, their college is a minority degree college, all the admissions are subject to getting approval from the Osmania University , which is competent authority to approve the admissions ultimately.  As the complainant could not fulfil the obligations by providing all the documents required, the same was rejected and that he also did not implead Osmania University as a party to the present complaint and opposite party no1. is not competent to grant any admission and hence the complaint against opposite party No.1 is not maintainable and his grievance was against the university.  Hence the question of refunding the money does not arise as number of admissions are fixed and the curriculum expenditure of the college is based on the admissions that have been in the academic year.  The complainant himself is negligent in furnishing incomplete application and has not produced the relevant documents and thereby his application was rejected and hence prayed to dismiss the complaint against opposite party No1.

Opposite party No.2 stated that it is only due to failure of the complainant to furnish copies of all relevant documents resulted in rejection of the case of the complainant for admission to the examination.  Opposite party No.2 reiterated the facts as stated by opposite party No.1 and prayed for dismissal of the complaint.

Based on the evidence adduced i.e. Exs.A1 to A18 and B1 and the pleadings put forward, the District Forum dismissed the complaint.

Aggrieved by the said order, the complainant preferred this appeal.

The learned counsel for the appellant/complainant submitted that the appellant came down to Hyderabad and applied for state level entrance examination for the 3 year computer course from Osmania University called B.C.A. and passed the entrance examination and qualified to study B.CA. and joined the respondent degree college in B.C.A. first year course.  He submitted that he paid Rs.30,000/- as first year fees in non-local quota being resident of Maharastra and attended classes regularly.  He also submitted that in November, 2000, the respondent college asked the appellant to furnish the certificate of residence of Hyderabad from M.R.O. and he obtained the same for the period he was residing in Hyderabad and again on 4-2-2001 the appellant was asked to furnish the residential certificate of 4 years and after that he came to know that the last date for application to examination is over.  He further submitted that the District Forum ought to have seen that the appellant could not attend the first year examination of 3 years B.C.A course and that he lost a valuable academic year. He submitted that the convener of common entrance test BCA 2000 did not scrutinize the application for entrance test and had they scrutinized the application, he would have appeared for the test due to incomplete application and because he was admitted, he was under the notion that he was eligible to get admission to the course and the college should know the rules of local and non-local candidates and given admission without verifying the application.  He also submitted the his application ought to have been rejected when it was found incomplete and the college should have made it mandatory to produce all the needed certificates at the time of admission only and atleast verified his application at the time of admission and informed at least a month or two instead of waiting till the examination and Hall ticket time, which is in fact a long gap from the date of admission to the examination time and prayed to allow the appeal.

    PRESIDENT.   LADY MEMBER.

                                                            DATED 30^th July, 2007.