Ignoring seniority is unfair

Pushpa Girimaji

SINCE it is that time of the year when students are applying for admissions to various colleges, it is only appropriate to write about an order of the apex court that gives students, who are unfairly denied admissions by educational institutions, the right to fight back and get justice. The influence of money power and political power in admissions to educational institutions is well known. When an institute or a college gives in to such influences and admits students who may not otherwise make it in the merit list, thereby denying seats to those who deserved them, the victims can well knock at the doors of courts.

In fact, the highest court has emphasised that overlooking the seniority in the merit list is an unfair trade practice. It also constitutes deficiency in the service provided by an educational institution, and a consumer who suffers as a consequence is entitled to compensation.

In this particular case, the college that had overlooked the seniority of a student in the merit list was asked to pay Rs 18,000 as damages. The case has its origin in the application of Deepa Ravi to Mercy College, Palakkad, Kerala, for admission to the bachelor of science course in mathematics. When she was called for an interview, she was told that the seats for B.Sc mathematics had already been filled as per the merit list.

However, since she was eighth in the merit list and the first seven had been admitted to the mathematics course, she would be the first student to quality if a vacancy arose, or if the college increased the number of seats in mathematics. In either case, she would be the first to be offered the seat. On this assurance, she got admission to B.Sc chemistry, which was her second choice.

However, she found soon after that the college had admitted five more students to the mathematics course, contrary to its promise to her. Her father then met the principal, and on his refusal to admit her to the mathematics course, moved her to another college in Ottapalam, where the subject of her choice was available. In his complaint to the court, the father contended that Mercy College had ignored his daughter’s seniority in the merit list.

As a consequence, he had to get her admitted to a college situated far from his house in Ottapalam, thereby incurring huge expenses for his daughter’s travel to the college. This he calculated as Rs 500 per month for three years. He also complained that Palakkad College had retained Rs 250 when he asked for a refund of the fees paid by him towards his daughter’s admission. The district consumer disputes redressal forum, which first heard the case, found on examination of the admission list that the college had not followed the university rules pertaining to admission.

Out of 24 seats, the college had admitted only nine students in the open merit list, and even here the sequence followed was not according to the list, and students who were below the rank of Deepa, had been admitted. Even when the college announced its second list, Deepa was not given admission in the mathematics group.

Holding the college guilty of unfair practice and deficiency in the service provided by it, the forum directed the college to pay Deepa Rs 18,000 as compensation, and also refund the remaining amount of Rs 250.

However, the Kerala state commission, before which the college filed an appeal, set aside the order of the district forum on the ground that matters pertaining to education did not fall within the ambit of the consumer courts.

Unwilling to give up, the father filed a revision petition before the national commission. The apex court set aside the order of the state commission, upheld that of the district forum, thereby making it clear that the student deserved to be compensated by the college (M.Ravindranath vs Principal, Mercy College, Palakkad, RP no 658 of 1997, decided on 24-9-2001).

This particular case, decided in 2001, throws open the process of admission in educational institutions to the scrutiny of courts. It also provides for compensation to students who are unfairly denied admission to a college or to the subject preferred by them.

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