Kolkata: A prospectus or brochure amounts to a contractual agreement between a student and an educational institution, the Calcutta High Court held on Thursday while upholding a 37.5% mid-course fee hike by Dr BC Roy Engineering College, Durgapur.
The court clarified that once a student enrolls in a college, it is deemed that they have accepted the terms and conditions set out — which, in this case, stated clearly that "fee structure was liable to be revised from time to time in accordance with govt decisions."
A group of students pursuing the 4-year BTech programme (2023–2027) at the college had filed a case challenging the "legality" of a govt notification that enhanced fees mid-course. They argued that some students had taken loans based on the original fee structure at the time of admission, and that increasing it mid-course would place them in a difficult position.
The students took admission in Aug 2023, and their registration was completed in Oct 2023. On Oct 16, 2023, the upper fee ceiling for self-financing engineering colleges in the state was revised upwards. In Nov 2023, after completion of the MAKAUT registration process, the college issued a revised fee demand with effect from the second semester commencing Jan 2024. The revised structure introduced an enhanced tuition fee along with a newly imposed "development fee" of Rs 9,075 per semester. The cumulative effect amounted to an increase of nearly 37.5% over the fee structure originally disclosed at the time of admission.
Their counsel argued that the case was not about whether a self-financing engineering college has the authority to enhance fees, but that "any such fee enhancement cannot be made applicable to students who have already taken admission."
It was contended that "there must be consistency and transparency in determining the ‘fee structure' and affordability of a student to pay that fees are also to be taken into account… A student must know about it before taking admission."
Justice Partha Sarathi Chatterjee acknowledged the students' difficulties but stated: "The writ jurisdiction cannot be allowed to be invoked to facilitate the avoidance of contractual obligations voluntarily undertaken. The occurrence of hardship or inconvenience in the performance of conditions agreed to under a contract affords no justification for non-compliance with the terms of the contract, which the parties had accepted with open eyes."
After nearly 7 years, the upper fee ceiling chargeable by self-financing engineering colleges in the state was revised for the academic session 2023-2024 onwards. The college contended that the revision was necessitated by a substantial increase in operational expenditures, including faculty remuneration, infrastructural maintenance, lab upgrades, and compliance with regulatory requirements, which had remained unaddressed for several preceding academic years.
"The revised fee structure is neither arbitrary nor retrospective, as it was implemented prospectively in accordance with the state notification and within the permissible regulatory framework applicable to self-financing institutions," it was contended.