TED NewsDesk, New Delhi: The Delhi High Court rejected a plea filed by a few National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) students who are against the fee raise. The HC said that it would be wrong to call the increased fees arbitrary or oppressive; it added that the terms of the plea were no clear and did not have grounds enough to be accepted.
The plea was filed by 4th-year students of NIFT, who have questioned the notice that contains the fee structure f the academic year 2020-2021. According to Justice Jayant Nath, “The fee hike cannot be termed arbitrary or oppressive. There are no grounds to warrant any interference by this court. There is no merit in the present petition and the same is dismissed,”
According to the notice, the fees have been raised by 10 per cent for the NRI category and by 5 per cent for the non-NRI category. The HC after taking note of the notice issued by the institute concluded that the fee raise was decreased by 5 per cent for non-NRI students for the July- December 2020 semester as well as for the January-June, 2021 session.
The students who filed the petition, Ananya Narayanan, Sanskriti Priyambada, Moubani Poddar and Twwisha Gupta who were represented by advocate Abhik Chimni, argued that the process of increasing the fee is not transparent and has many complications. He claimed that the institute is not following the process determined by the NIFT Academic Programmes Ordinances 2012.
The students added that the increase in fees for students from the NRI category is imprudent and makes it difficult for the students to pay the fee, which will now be more than nine lakhs per year. To quote the plea, “…this fee-structure incorporated a fee-hike of 10 per cent despite the current situation of COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on the financial stability of the citizens of the country,”