The High Court of Uttarakhand has ordered the Patanjali Ayurved College, Haridwar, to return the increased fee amount charged from its students within eight weeks. The single bench of justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari issued this order while hearing on a contempt petition filed by students against the college for not observing the earlier orders of the court.

In another contempt petition, the high court has directed the chairman and managing director of the Devbhoomi Medical College of Ayurveda and hospital in Dehradun to appear in the court on February 19.

In the first case, student of BMS in the Patanjali Ayurved College, Shubham Pant and 23 others had filed the contempt petition in the high court stating that the court had earlier ordered the college to return the increased amount of fees charged from the students.  However, the institution had not returned the said amount. The petitioners had stated that as per the rules, the college should have charged Rs 80,000 fee but the amount charged was Rs 2.15 lakh.

After the students challenged this in the high court, the court had directed the college to return the additional amount. However, the institute had not followed the order of the court, due to which the students had filed a contempt petition. In the second case, BMS student in Devbhoomi medical college, Prakhar Mishra and others had filed a contempt petition in the high court. They had also pointed out that the college had charged Rs 2.15 lakh fee instead of Rs  80,000.

The court had in July 2018 ordered the refund of the increased amount to the students. However, the college had not refunded the increased amount and was seeking hiked fees from the students, the petitioners stated.  Considering this, the single bench of justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari has directed the chairman and managing director of the college to appear personally in the court on February 19.