Hall tickets denied to disabled students at Thiruvalluvar University over exam fee waiver issue

Students with benchmark disabilities studying in colleges affiliated to the university say that they were denied hall tickets for semester-end examination although they were entitled to a waiver of examination fees as per a Government Order. The University, however, says that they have waived off the fees for theory paper exams for this category of students, but other payments, like provisional certificate fee, consolidated marksheet fee, and convocation fee, were not exempt.

Students said that the University’s online payment portal had several different categories of payment, including theory paper fee, application fee or registration fee, marks statement fee, and automation fee, to be paid before every semester-end examination. There were other payments, like provisional degree certificate fee, consolidated mark sheet fee, and convocation fee, that students were required to pay in the final semester. According to a student who refused to go on record fearing backlash from the University, a waiver of examination fee should include all other corresponding recurring fees as well, like the mark statement fees or automation fees, but the university refused to exempt these categories and denied hall tickets to those who did not pay these fees.