Hyderabad, June 16 -- The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission 1, Hyderabad, has ordered Malla Reddy Engineering College to pay Rs 1.10 lakh in compensation for withholding a former student's original academic certificates and demanding additional fees for their return, a practice the Telangana High Court has explicitly ruled unlawful.

The complainant, identified as Rakesh Varma's son from Nampally, had enrolled in the B Tech AI and Machine Learning course at the college's Maisammaguda campus in October 2021, paying Rs 80,000 as first-year tuition. The college retained his Class 10 and Intermediate original certificates at the time of admission, as is standard practice.

After completing the first semester, the student was una...