HON’BLE MRS. JUSTI CE SUREPALLI NANDA WRI T PETI TI ON No.25816 OF 2025

ORDER:

Heard Sri Mohammed Asif, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner, learned Assistant Government Pleader for Education, appearing on behalf of respondent Nos. 1 to 5.

2. The petitioner approached the Court seeking prayer as under:

“…to issue any appropriate Writ, Order or direction, more particularly in the nature of Writ of Mandamus or any other appropriate Writ order or direction declaring the actions of Respondents No 3 to 5 in withholding the Petitioner’s original certificates even after issuing representations dated 09.06.2025 and 03.07.2025 as illegal, ex- facie, arbitrary, unjust, unfair, unlawful, unconstitutional, non application of mind and in violation of Principles of Natural Justice and in violation of Article 14, 21 and 300A of the Constitution of India and the directives issued by the Telangana State Council of Higher Education TSCHE dated 23.02.2024 and against the catena of judgments of this Honourable Court and in violation of The UGC Grievance Redressal of Students Regulations 2023 and consequently direct the Respondents here in to Consider the representations dated 09.06.2025 and 03.07.2025 and to release all the original certificates of the Petitioner immediately and without demanding any additional payment in the interest of justice...”

3. The case of the petitioner in brief as per the averments made in the affidavit filed by the petitioner in support of the present writ petition is as under:

The petitioner had taken admission into the college of respondent No.5 in M. Tech., Software engineering Program in the year 2014. The petitioner did not appear for the first semester examination and was not eligible to proceed to further semesters. At the time of admission, the petitioner had submitted his original educational documents/certificates such as Secondary School Certificate (SSC), Intermediate Certificate, B.Tech Marks Memo, CMM, Provisional Certificate, Degree Certificate, Transfer Certificate etc., which are retained by the respondent No.5 and in the possession of the respondent No.5. Aggrieved by the same, the petitioner filed this present writ petition.

4. PERUSED THE RECORD:-

(A) The directions issued by the Telangana State Council of Higher Education, Hyderabad with regard to Original Certificates of the Students is extracted hereunder.

PROF.SRIRAM VENKATESH SECRETARY Lr.No.TSCHE/ Fee Reimbursement/ 2024 Dt: 23.02.2024 To The Registrars of OU, KU, TU, MGU, SU, PU, JNTU and JNA & FAU Sir, Sub: TSCHE – Withholding of Original Certificates of the Students – instructions to the Colleges – Reg.

-oOo-

It has come to the attention of the Government that certain private colleges are withholding the original certificates of students on the pretext of not receiving fee reimbursement from the Government.

Withholding of original certificates will have significant implications for the students, especially when they need to present these documents to join for higher education, applying or joining for jobs and other purposes.

Further, in terms of UGC (Grievance Redressal of students) Regulations 2018 the colleges are barred from withholding or refusing to return any document in the form of certificates of degree, diploma or any other award or other document deposited with it by a students for the purposes of seeking admission in such institutions, with a view to induce or compel such student to pay any fee or fees in respect of any course or program of study which such student does not intend to pursue.

Therefore, I am by direction request the Universities to address/ instruct to all affiliated Private Colleges under its jurisdiction not to insist payment of Tuition Fee from the students who are eligible for fee reimbursement and not to deny issuing original certificates on the pretext of not receiving the reimbursement from the Government. It is not a healthy practice. Such colleges may be blacklisted and shall not be considered for fr