IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA (CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION)

APPELLATE SIDE Present :

The Hon’ble Justice Partha Sarathi Chatterjee WPA 13054 of 2024 With CAN 1 of 2024 With CAN 2 of 2024 With CAN 3 of 2025 Gourab Kumar Sadhu & Ors.

Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

With WPA 26400 of 2024 With CAN 1 of 2025 Tanushri Mondal & Ors.

Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

With WPA 3028 of 2024 With CAN 2 of 2024 With CAN 3 of 2024 With CAN 5 of 2025 Debajyoti Dey & Ors.

Vs.

The State of West Bengal & Ors.

For the petitioners : Mr. Pratik Dhar, Sr. Adv., Mr. Sarwar Jahan, Mr. Shmim-ul-Bari.

For the State (in WPA 13054 of 2024 & WPA 26400 of 2024) : Mr. Swapan Kr. Datta, Sr. Adv., Mr. Rajat Dutta, Mr. Dipankar Dasgupta.

For the State (in WPA 3028 of 2024) : Mr. Sirsanya Bandyopadhyay, Ms. Tapati Samanta.

For the respondent nos. 13 to 15 : Mr. Tanoy Chakraborty, Mr. Chhandak Dutta.

For the B.C. Roy Engineering College : Mr. Kamalesh Bhattacharya, Ms. Rama Halder, Ms. Eshita Mondal.

For M.A.K.A.U.T. University : Ms. Nandini Mitra, Mr. Sakya Maity, Mr. S. Banerjee.

Heard on : 18.12.2025 Judgment on : 15.01.2026 Partha Sarathi Chatterjee, J.:-

Preface:

1. For the sake of thematic coherence, all three writ petitions are taken up for hearing together. The aforesaid writ petitions have been filed by a group of students presently pursuing the four-year B.Tech. Programme (Batch 2023–

2027) at Dr. B.C. Engineering College, Durgapur, Paschim Burdwan, calling into question the legality and justifiability of Notification No. 466-Edn(T)/10M- 04/2004 (Part-IV) dated 16.10.2023 issued by the Deputy Secretary to the Government of West Bengal, Department of Higher Education, whereby a mid- course enhancement of fees was directed. The petitioners have, therefore, prayed for issuance of a writ of certiorari for quashing the said notification dated 16.10.2023. In addition, the petitioners have prayed for a writ of mandamus directing the college authorities to withdraw and/or cancel the revised fee structure appearing at Annexure-P-4 to the writ petition and to accept fees in accordance with the earlier fee structure as reflected in Annexure-P-2 to the writ petition.

Petitioners’ case:

2. Before entering into the merits of the issues involved in the present writ petition, it would be apposite to briefly advert to the facts leading to its institution.

3. In or about August 2023, the petitioners secured admission to the four-year B.Tech. undergraduate course in different departments of Dr. B.C. Roy Engineering College, Durgapur, a self-financing engineering institution affiliated to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology ( for short, MAKAUT) and approved by the All India Council for Technical Education, New Delhi (respondent no. 5 herein), as well as by the Department of Higher Education, Government of West Bengal, through the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination (in short,WBJEE) and Joint Entrance Examination-Main ( in short, JEE-Main), conducted by National Testing Agency (in short, NTA) in 2023.

4. At the time of admission, the respondent college communicated a definitive and uniform fee structure, which was accepted by the petitioners as governing the financial terms of their academic engagement. Relying upon the aforesaid representation, the petitioners completed their admission formalities. Several petitioners, acting on the disclosed fee structure, applied for and obtained educational loans from various nationalised and private banking institutions, which were sanctioned strictly on the basis of the fee structure communicated by the respondent college.

5. In October 2023, the petitioners duly completed their registration. Upon such registration, the petitioners’ admissions stood formally confirmed, and the statutory window for withdrawal from, or migration to, any other institution for the relevant academic session stood closed.

6. Subsequent thereto, on 16th October, 2023, the Department of Higher Education, Government of West Bengal, issued Notification No