CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has refused to interfere with a single judge's order dismissing a student's plea seeking release of her course completion and MBBS degree certificates without repayment of fees that were seized by the NIA over alleged terror links.
The fee paid by the student, Puja Kumari from Bihar, was seized by the central agency alleging that the it was funded through Maoist activities
Hearing Puja’s appeal against a single judge's order refusing to direct the college and medical authorities to release her course completion and degree certificates, a division bench comprising Chief Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan said if the student was indeed innocent, she could approach the Special Court seeking release of the seized funds. It added that the college could not be expected to litigate against the NIA to recover the fee amount.
During the period when she was pursuing MBBS, Rs 1.13 crore was periodically remitted to her account. The NIA alleged that the money used to pay her fees was derived from funds extorted on behalf of the banned CPI (Maoist). After the agency seized the amount, the college was left without the fee, prompting it to withhold the certificates.
The student contended that educational certificates could not be retained as security or treated like financial deposits under a general lien. She denied any personal involvement or connection with any unlawful or militant organisation and maintained that she had an unblemished academic record.
Observing that the single judge's order had rightly protected the financial autonomy of the college while leaving it open to the student to pay the requisite fee afresh and obtain her certificates, the bench said it found no reason to interfere and dismissed the appeal.