Free exit and security deposit: when you can leave a seat without losing money

When you register for MCC counselling you pay a security deposit. Think of it as a promise that you will take your seat seriously. You get it back at the end, unless you break a rule. The most important rule is simple: only Round 1 lets you walk away from a seat for free. This is called the free exit.

Round by round

How much is the deposit?

From MCC’s 2026 bulletin:

• All India Quota, UR or EWS: ₹25,000 deposit (plus a ₹1,000 registration fee).
• All India Quota, SC, ST, OBC or PwD: ₹10,000 deposit (plus a ₹500 registration fee).
• Deemed universities, everyone: ₹2,00,000 deposit (plus a ₹5,000 registration fee).

The registration fee never comes back. Only the deposit can. If you want both All India Quota and deemed university seats, you do not pay twice: you pay only the bigger deemed university amount.

The other way to lose the deposit

Your admission is cancelled because something you entered was wrong, or you could not show the documents the college asked for. The documents checklist helps you avoid this.

Free exit, forfeiture and resignation: three different things

• Free exit is only for Round 1. If you are allotted a Round 1 seat and do not report to the college, MCC counts it as a free exit; you can log in again with your earlier registration and take part in Round 2, and you cannot claim the Round 1 seat afterwards (bulletin, page 54, Q14).
• Exit with forfeiture is for anyone allotted a seat in Round 2 or a later round who does not report to the college. The security deposit is not refunded (page 60, Q46; page 52, Q8).
• Resignation is giving up a seat you have already joined. MCC’s flow chart on page 15 shows the Round 1 resignation as a free exit and the Round 2 one as “with forfeiture”. A Round 3 seat cannot be resigned or exited once joined (page 13). All joining and resigning is online: an offline admission or resignation is not accepted (page 7, para 2.25).

What it costs, in rupees

An open-category (UR or EWS) candidate in the All India Quota pays a ₹1,000 registration fee plus a ₹25,000 deposit (page 52, Q7). If that candidate is allotted a Round 2 seat and does not join, the ₹25,000 is forfeited, and to come back in Round 3 the candidate registers again with a fresh payment (page 45; page 59, Q36). A reserved-category candidate pays ₹500 plus ₹10,000. Anyone who registers for deemed universities pays ₹5,000 plus ₹2,00,000, so the deposit at stake there is far bigger; someone who applies for both All India Quota and deemed universities pays only the higher amount (page 53, Q9).

A college may also charge its own transaction or service fee when you upgrade or resign. MCC does not decide that and is not responsible for refunds of it, so ask the college before you join (page 60, Q49).

Seats you were never given

If you are not allotted any seat in any round, the whole deposit comes back to the account you paid from, with no interest (page 59, Q43; page 62, Q60).

Getting your deposit back

• You get it back if you were not given any seat in any round, or if you did not break any rule above.
• Refunds start only after all rounds are over and MCC announces that counselling has finished.
• The refund is started within 15 days and completed within 30 days of that announcement.
• It goes back only to the same bank account or card you paid from.
• Keep that card or account open until the refund arrives. If it is closed, the bank takes a long time to return the money, and MCC says it is not responsible for the delay (page 61, Q51).
• Do not raise a chargeback with your bank. The payment gateway then stops MCC’s custodian from refunding directly, and the refund can be held up for a long time (page 62, Q55).
• Paid from an NRI account? MCC cannot refund to an NRI account under RBI rules; the money has to be moved to an NRO account first, and the refund comes back to the NRO account (page 62, Q59).
• You do not have to ask for the refund. MCC publishes the list of candidates eligible for it (page 62, Q54).

Keeping a seat while you try for a better one

In Round 1, if you like your seat but want something better, choose Float: join the seat online and give your willingness to upgrade on the MCC portal. If you do not say yes to upgrading, you will not be considered for an upgrade in Round 2. After joining a Round 2 seat, you can again say you want to upgrade in Round 3. Want to keep your Round 1 seat and stop there? Do not fill any Round 2 choices, and it stays yours. A Freeze candidate keeps the seat and does not try to upgrade; Freeze candidates join in person.

What MCC does not decide

Charges a college takes when you upgrade or resign are the college’s own rules, not MCC’s. Ask the college before you join. State counselling is a separate process with its own rules; read your state’s own notice for its deposit and exit rules.

Holding an MCC seat when your state result comes?

The MCC seat vs state seat helper works out whether to keep, resign or wait, using these same free exit and deposit rules. Round dates change every year; see the counselling calendar.