Gauree Malkarnekar, TNN, Oct 17, 2010
PANAJI: Parents whose wards had sought admissions in various Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the country but later opted out have complained to Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal claiming non-refund of fees paid to the respective tech schools to enter round two of admissions.
This year, admissions to IITs were made online to replace the one-to-one counselling system. The students had to first arrange the 50-odd course options available to them in the sequence of their preference online. They were then allotted a course on merit-cum-choice basis in the first round of admissions.
To be eligible for second round of admissions, the students had to pay by demand draft Rs 40,000 each-equivalent to the first semester fees at the IITs-as acceptance of the seat allotted. But students who did not get a course of their first preference this year after round two and opted out of IITs in favour of other technical institutes have now have complained to Sibal that three months after the admission process was over, they are still to get the refund as promised.
However, IIT sources pointed out that the government rule states that only if the IIT managed to fill that vacant seat, does it have to refund the fee to the candidate who opted out and joined the NIT.
IIT-Guwahati director Gautam Barua, said, "But we merely conducted two rounds of admission and these seats have remained unfilled to date. Had we filled them up, we would have refunded the fees."
Sources said close to 10 to 15 seats in each IIT have remained unfilled this year and about 40 students who had paid the fees, but later decided against joining the tech schools are demanding that their fees be refunded.
"Most of these candidates had paid fees to book a place in the IITs after the first admission session so that they could participate in the second round of admission, hoping for a better branch. However, as most students on the first selection list took admission, the merit list did not alter much. On the other hand, many of these 40 candidates signed up at private colleges or were selected in a higher stream in the NITs,'' said a source at an IIT.
For instance, a student who got admission in an IIT in engineering physics signed up at NIT-Suratkal as he was selected for computer science.
Around five parents of such candidates across the country have been able to track each other and have written to Sibal stating that as per the FAQs listed on the admission website of the IITs, it was stated that the parents would be handed back the money after deducting Rs 1,000 as processing fees.
The parents in their letter also claimed that they had written to the public information officer at IIT Madras, which was the designated IIT to carry out admissions for this year, asking for details under the Right to Information Act of all such parents to whom fees have not been refunded. The parents said the IIT has not responded to the RTI application, and have therefore gone in appeal.
One such parent, Madhusudhan Joshi, from Goa whose son finally opted for admission at BITS Pilani, Goa campus, said, "My son got his ninth choice of preference during the first round of admissions. But hoping that he might have chances of getting into pure physics at Kanpur or Kharagpur IITs, which was his first preference, we paid Rs 40,000 after going through the FAQs. I had also confirmed that the money would be refunded if we opt out through a telephonic conversation with chairman of IIT Madras."
He said further, "After the second round, my son did not get his course of preference at IIT, but he got the same at BITS, so he decided to join there. So while the second round of admissions got over on July 13, I wrote to the IIT on July 17 stating that we are opting out. It's been three months since. We suspect there are several parents like us but we are being refused the information under RTI. This is not expected from a premier institute of such repute as the IITs."
Rajendra Bhansali, a resident of Ajmer, whose son has also opted for a seat at BITS, had to face a similar predicament.
"When they did not refund my money, I contacted IIT Madras. I was told by an official to contact IIT Mumbai. This is nothing but harassment," he said.
Director of IIT Madras, however, refused to comment stating that he is not in a position to speak on the matter at the moment.
Other than Joshi and Bhansali, Satyanarayan from Hyderabad and Dinanath Ojha and Naresh Modi from Ahmedabad are the other petitioners.
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