Delhi High Court dismisses students' plea challenging fee hike by NIFT

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a plea by some students of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) challenging fee hike, saying it cannot be termed arbitrary or oppressive. The high court said it was of the opinion that the plea raised by 4th year students challenging the fees hike is vague and cannot be accepted.

"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,” Justice Jayant Nath said. The court passed the order on a plea by the students raising grievance that the fees have been hiked by 10 per cent for NRI quota students and 5 per cent for non-NRI quota students.

The students have challenged the circular issued by the institute containing the fee-structure of the students for the academic year 2020-21. After going through the institute's circular, the high court said the fee hike for non-NRI quota students was reduced by 5 per cent for the semester of July-December, 2020 and also for January-June, 2021 keeping in view the present COVID-19 pandemic.

Petitioners Moubani Poddar, Ananya Narayanan, Sanskkriti Priyambda and Twwisha Gupta, represented through advocate Abhik Chimni, urged that the system of fees hike is completely erroneous and there is no transparency. He contended that it is not clear as to whether the procedure laid down under the NIFT Academic Programmes Ordinances 2012 has been complied with by the institute.

The petitioners urged that the fees hike for NRI quota students is excessive and now they have to pay more than nine lakh annually. 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," the plea said.