The Madras high court has rejected the plea of a girl for refund of fees from an engineering college in the city that she left to join one in Pudukkottai as she was unable to attend class on all Saturdays.
The petitioner Jane Sathya contended that she could not work on Saturdays as her family belonged to the Seventh Day Adventist Church and worshipped God that day. Sathya said she joined B.Tech (Information Technology) in Meenakshi Sundaram Engineering College in Kodambakkam in August 2005 by paying the fee of Rs50,000.
The college fixed Monday to Saturday as working days. However, she did not attend class on all the Saturdays as it was the day of Sabbath.
Even if she missed all the Saturdays for the entire semester, she would have the requisite attendance for writing the examination but the college insisted that she attend class on Saturdays. Sathya thus left the college in October 2006 and joined Mount Zion College of Engineering in Pudukkottai.
However, when she asked Meenakshi Sundaram Engineering College to refund the fees paid by her, the college refused to do so, she said.
The college submitted that once fees are paid it would not be refunded. It also pointed out that as she had left the college on the last date of admission, the seat could not be filled up anyway.
Justice K. Chandru said the petitioner was well informed about the working schedule of the college and thus was bound to adhere to it.
The college running classes on Saturdays cannot be said to be depriving her right to have her religious faith nor does she have a right to absent herself on a day that was prescribed as a working day, the judge added.
The judge said that, as rightly contended by the college, the refund of fees has been stipulated in the circular issued by AICTE and that the case of the petitioner does not fall within the norms fixed by AICTE.