Madras High Court Refuses to Order Medical College to Hand Over Course Certificates to Student Whose Fee Was Seized by NIA

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has refused to order a self-financing medical college near Chennai to hand over the course certificates to an MBBS student whose fee amount of Rs 1.13 crore was seized by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on charges of her tuition fee being funded by Maoists. The first division bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan also dismissed an appeal filed by the student, Puja Kumari of Bihar, challenging a 2024 order of a single judge dismissing her writ petition praying for directing the college to hand her course certificates. The NIA had taken the action by invoking the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, to seize the amount from the Chettinad Academy of Research and Education, Kelambakkam, based on an FIR registered in Ranchi, in which the woman’s brother and uncle were extorting money for a banned Maoist organisation.