The high court on Tuesday directed the state nursing council to probe the alleged misappropriation of funds by nursing schools and colleges. It has directed the council to file FIRs against the offenders.
Justice Biswajit Basu also asked the trustee board members of a private nursing college at Amtala in South 24-Parganas, which was accused of not refunding the admission fee to two students despite shutting down, to pay ₹2 lakh to the council.
The court’s order followed petitions by two students who alleged that the college was not returning ₹3 lakh each to them. That was the amount they paid while taking admission in 2023.
A year after admission, the college was shut down, allegedly because of inadequate enrollment, but the college did not refund the money, the students said in their petition filed in September.
“If any such school or college is found guilty of misappropriating money and cheating students, the council will have to lodge FIRs against the school or college authorities,” Justice Basu said.
Sources in the state’s nursing education fraternity told Metro that multiple nursing schools and colleges have sprung up, but many lack the required affiliations.
“A nursing school that offers a diploma must be affiliated with both the state nursing council and the Indian Nursing Council. Colleges that offer a bachelor’s degree must have affiliation from the state’s university of health sciences, besides being affiliated to the state and national councils,” said the principal of a nursing college not associated in this case.
“Many students do not know this and take admission in institutions that lack proper affiliations,” she added.
Arindam Das, the counsel for the petitioners, said: “My clients took admission in 2023 after paying ₹3 lakh each. After one year, the college authorities informed them that because of an inadequate number of students, they had decided to shut down, but they refused to refund the deposited amount.”
Earlier, the bench had directed the nine members of the trustee board of that college to present themselves in the court. They did so on Tuesday.
The trustee board members said they were incapable of running the college because of the shortage of students. They also said that they were not in a position to refund the money immediately.
Justice Basu then directed the trustee board members to deposit ₹2 lakh into the state nursing council’s account.
He also asked the council to audit the accounts of the nursing institutions in the state.