The petitioners are House Sergeants who are undergoing internship after successfully completing M.B.B.S. course from the 4th respondent-college under the management of the third respondent. The W.P. is for direction to the third respondent to immediately refund the interest free deposit made by the petitioners at the time of admission to the M.B.B.S. course or to make payment to the various Banks from where some of the petitioners have availed loans against the security of deposit and on undertaking by the third respondent to make payment to the creditor institution. While the case of the petitioners is that they are entitled to refund of the interest free deposit after completion of the course, which according to them do not include the internship, counsel for the third respondent referring to the Medical Council Regulations contended that internship or house sergeancy is part of the MBBS course and so much so, petitioners having not completed their internship cannot be said to have completed the course making them eligible for the refund. Even though it is an accepted position that successful completion of house sergeancy after passing the MBBS examination is an essential requirement for obtaining the degree and to make a person eligible for registration as a doctor and the same is the scheme under the Medical Council Regulations, I do not think there is any need to go into the same because arrangement between the petitioners and the third respondent is governed by the prospectus which contains the terms of the interest free deposit taken at the time of admission and the undertaking furnished by the third respondent before the Banks, a specimen copy of which is produced as Ext.P4 in the O.P. Clause V of the prospectus states that

“Deposit paid at the time of admission will be refunded (without interest) only after completion of the course, after adjusting dues if any.”

Therefore, what has to be looked into is the duration of the course which as given in Clause III of the prospectus issued by the 4th respondent-college is as follows:

“Duration of MBBS course is four and a half years. After successful completion of this, the students have to undergo compulsory rotating internship for twelve months.”

It is obvious from the above that internship is not treated as part of the course which students will have to undergo after successful completion of the “course” which is stated therein to be for four and a half years. Even though the contention of the counsel for the 3rd respondent that internship is part of the MBBS degree course and without successful completion of the same after passing the MBBS examinations, nobody is entitled to MBBS degree is correct, internship is not taken as part of the course by the third respondent in their prospectus wherein duration of MBBS course is specifically mentioned as four and a half years which obviously is from the commencement of the course. It is conceded that all the petitioners have successfully completed four and a half years MBBS course, passed the examination and are presently undergoing the internship (house sergeancy). In the circumstances and in view of the specific definition of duration of course covering only four and a half years as above given in the prospectus, the respondents cannot contend by reference to Medical Council Regulations that internship is part of the MBBS course. It is not as if the management was not aware of the internship as integral part of the MBBS degree course at the time of publishing the prospectus based on which deposits were taken. It is obvious from the prospectus that the management consciously limited the duration of course only for four and a half years. This is more clear from the last part of Clause V of the prospectus which provides that candidates discontinuing studies will have to pay tuition fee for subsequent years and in that event, interest free deposit will be returned after four years after adjusting the dues if any which obvio