Telangana HC grants relief to Inter students of private colleges without recognition

Rules that the government authorities should accept the IPE 2025 examination fee from students without the imposition of late fee

Hyderabad: Justice T Vinod Kumar of the Telangana High Court on Friday granted relief to students enrolled in private colleges that had not yet obtained recognition, regarding the payment of examination fees for the upcoming Intermediate final exams in March 2025.

The judge was dealing with a writ plea filed by the Telangana Private Junior College Management Association, an association representing various colleges that had not secured recognition from the State authorities.

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The counsel for the petitioner argued that the government had issued G.O.Ms. No.4 dated 15/01/2025 granting an exemption for one year from the requirement to obtain Fire NOC under the Telangana Fire Service Act, 1999.

However, the authorities continued to impose penalties and also not grant recognition to the petitioner’s member colleges, resulting in the students who had secured admission into these colleges not being able to pay the examination fee in time.

As a result, they now face the imposition of a late fee of Rs 2,500 per student. The petitioner claimed this penalty was directly impacting the students’ ability to pay the required fees, resulting in the additional burden of late fees.

In response, the Additional Advocate General (AAG) representing the State government contended that the payment schedule for the examination fee had been set out earlier, with the last date for payment without a late fee being November 27, 2024, to December 3, 2024.

The AAG further clarified that while late payments were allowed up to January 2, 2025, additional charges ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 2,000 were applied, and a further extension for payments with a Rs 2,500 late fee was announced on January 17, 2025, until January 25, 2025.

The AAG further emphasized that the penalties imposed on the petitioner’s member colleges for admitting students without recognition were unrelated to the examination fee payments.

After hearing both sides, Justice Vinod Kumar observed that, although the penalties were validly levied for the lack of recognition, the students should not suffer for circumstances beyond their control, especially since the colleges had committed to paying the penalties themselves.

Keeping student interests in mind, the court ruled that the government authorities should accept the examination fees from the students without the imposition of the late fee, provided that the normal fee and penalties as per the notices were paid by the colleges by January 25, 2025.

Additionally, the court directed the petitioner’s member colleges to furnish a bank guarantee equivalent to the late fee amount of Rs 2,500 per student to cover the risk of late payment, with the guarantee to be submitted by January 28, 2025.

If the said conditions are met by the colleges, they must allow the students to sit for the final examinations scheduled for March 2025, observed the judge. The matter is scheduled for further hearing on January 28.