University Cannot Retain MBBS Student's Original Certificates to Force Fee Payment: Rajasthan High Court

The petitioner took admission to the University's MBBS course in 2022 and deposited her original documents (para 2). She completed the first two years, and the fees for 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 were paid (paras 2, 19). She then stopped attending; her request to withdraw her admission was refused (para 3). Having joined a design course at Pearl University, Delhi, she needed her original Transfer and Migration Certificates for examinations beginning 05.12.2025, but the University refused to return them (paras 3-5). In her pending writ petition she moved application No. 1/2025 for their release (para 1). The University relied on the counselling information booklet, her and her parents' fee affidavits, and the loss caused by a vacant seat (paras 9-15).

Justice Anuroop Singhi held that the student's claim to her documents and the University's claim to the balance fee for the fourth and fifth years do not overlap (para 17). A document deposited only to seek admission cannot be retained as a tool to compel payment; that would defeat its purpose, which is to verify the student's documents and eligibility "and nothing more" (para 17). The booklet, which says originals "may be kept with the institution till completion of the course" (para 10), concerns the admission process and nowhere empowers the University to keep them when a student wishes to leave (para 18). No document signed by the student made payment of the balance fee a precondition for their return (para 18). The affidavits allow the institution to take measures to recover fees, but give it no unfettered right to hold documents to the prejudice of the student's career (paras 11, 18). The Supreme Court decision cited by the University sets standards for collecting fees but nowhere authorises keeping originals to recover them (paras 12, 19). The University may recover its fees, but not by forcibly retaining documents (para 19).