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Delhi IIT cheated us, students allege

The Delhi high court has issued showcause notices to the senior-most functionaries of the capital's Indian Institute of Technology and Police Commissioner V N Singh, on a plea by the students of a design school run on IIT premises.

The students alleged that they were cheated by the institute, which disowned the course they attended, and that the police failed to act on their complaint.

A division bench comprising Justices Usha Mehra and N G Nandi had earlier this week directed IIT director V S Raju, design school (industrial design clinic) co-ordinator SK Atreya, the police chief and the station house officer, Hauz Khas police station, to reply to the notices within four weeks.

The case will come up for hearing on December 12.

The petition alleged that the SHO did not act on their complaint, and had not even bothered to register a first information report.

The students said the IIT came out with an advertisement on April 9, 1998, inviting applications for its ''innovative course to be started by the design school''. The course was to be run in collaboration with two industrial partners, Next Technology and Katra Technology.

Counsel for petitioner Sarabjit Sharma alleged that the advertisement, information, prospectus and media publicity were all carried out in the institute's name, to create ''the impression that the course was being run by the IIT''.

For the six-month course, the fee was Rs 75,000. It was to be paid to the 'Foundation for technology transfer', IIT, Delhi.

The classes commenced from August 1. Even the identity card issued to the students carried the name and insignia of the IIT, Delhi, the petition said.

Moreover, several IIT faculty members were involved in conducting classes, which further strengthened the students' belief that the 'courses were being run by the IIT'.

But the course fell short of expectations right from the beginning and was not conducted professionally, the petition alleged. "No proper industrial visit was arranged throughout the course and no case studies done. No professional faculty was employed to teach various multimedia software,'' the petition stated.

In the last week of December, the design school management made the students enter an agreement for job placement with Katra Technologies India Private Ltd. However, even two months after passing out, nothing materialised.

The students said they "were shocked when senior IIT authorities started disowning the course''.

UNI

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