Universities Cannot Withhold Original Documents Submitted By Student To Compel Deposit Of Remaining Years' Fees: Rajasthan High Court

The Rajasthan High Court, in relief to a former MBBS student whose original documents were detained by the University, has held that such an act cannot be carried out to compel deposit of remaining year's fees.

The Court was considering a Writ Petition seeking release of documents of the Petitioner which are still lying with the Respondent-University, for her admission in Pearl University.

The bench of Justice Anuroop Singhi held, "In the present case, the petitioner-student has studied for two years viz. the academic sessions 2022-23 and 2023-24 and has already paid the fees for three academic sessions i.e. 2022- 23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 and thus, there is no occasion whatsoever to not to release the documents of the petitioner solely for they being used as a measure to recover the balance fee of IVth and Vth year. The Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Islamic Academic (supra) while considering the scope and right of an institution to collect fee has set the standards and the criterias for collecting the same but even very consciously, the Hon’ble Supreme Court has nowhere authorized any institution to continue custody of the original documents of a student solely to recover the fee. Even the State Government is quite conscious of the said fact and the information booklet relied upon by the respondents also nowhere provides for any such condition."

The Petitioner was represented by Advocate Punit Singhvi while the Respondent was represented by Senior Advocate Kamalakar Sharma.

Facts of the Case

The Petitioner had prayed for the release of the original documents of the Applicant-Petitioner submitted by her to the Respondent-University at the time of taking admission in MBBS Course in the year 2022. The Petitioner on account of her health reasons withdrew herself from the college and suo moto stopped attending the classes. Thereafter, she sought withdrawal of her admission from the Respondent-University but the same was refused. It was also placed on record that the Petitioner has now gotten herself admitted with one, Pearl University, Delhi (West), for undergoing Bachelor of Design in Communication Design course from the year 2025 onwards and now as the examinations are about to commence from December 05, 2025, the said university is mandatorily requiring the Petitioner to submit her original documents, which as of now are lying with the Respondent-University i.e., Jaipur National University.

Reasoning By Court

The Court at the outset pointed out that the issue involved is the release of her original documents which were submitted by her with the Respondent-University at the time of seeking admission in MBBS Course and the issue raised by University is collection of the balance fees of the course for the IVth and Vth year.

It noted that the said documents have been earned by her by investing her time and effort.

"In the considered opinion of this Court under no circumstances, both these issues can be said to be overlapping as a document deposited by a student solely for seeking admission in the course by no stretch of imagination can be retained as a tool to compel her to deposit the fee. Imposing such a condition would defeat the very object of furnishing the original documents by a student at the time of seeking admission, which is to ascertain and verify the documents and eligibility of that student and nothing more", the Court ruled.

The Application was accordingly disposed of.

Cause Title: Eshita Gupta D/o Dr. Navneet Gupta v. Jaipur National University & Anr.

Appearances:

Petitioner- Advocate Punit Singhvi, Advocate Shradha Mehta, Advocate Ayush Singh, Advocate Ishan Verma

Respondent- Senior Advocate Kamalakar Sharma, Advocate Yogesh Kalla, Advocate Rishabh Khandelwal, Advocate Angad Mirdha

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