The Hindu : Karnataka News : Panel told to justify tentative fee fixed for engineering courses

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 07, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Panel told to justify tentative fee fixed for engineering courses

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, JULY 6. The Karnataka High Court took the Government to task for not adhering to the calendar of events published by it and directed the Committee for Fixation of Fee Structure for Private Professional Colleges (Murgod Committee) to place materials to justify the annual tentative fee of Rs. 30,000 fixed for engineering courses. The court expressed dissatisfaction over the delay in fixing the final fee structure. A Division Bench comprising Justice S.R. Nayak and Justice D.V. Shylendra Kumar asked the Government why it was not adhering to the calendar of events published by it.

The Bench was hearing a petition by four engineering colleges of Bangalore challenging the uniform fees for engineering courses notified on June 4 by the committee. The People's Education Society, R.V. Engineering College, Mahatma Gandhi Vidyapeetha Trust and Visvesvaraiah College of Engineering challenged the annual fee of Rs. 30,000 a student fixed by the committee. They said the Supreme Court had upheld the right of institutions of higher learning to fix fees on their own in the T.M.A. Pai and Islamia Education cases. They said the fees sought by the colleges varied from Rs. 60,000 to Rs. 1.2 lakh. The committee did not consider the high standards of the institutions, but only affordability before fixing the fees.

They urged the court to set aside the notification and permit them to admit students in accordance with their fee structures. Mr. Justice Nayak and Mr. Justice Shylendra Kumar ordered issue of notices to the respondents. The case was adjourned to July 8.

Challenged

The Adi Chunchangiri Institute of Medical Sciences, Mandya district, challenged the fee structure for undergraduate and postgraduate courses. The college said that on June 21, the Murgod Committee notified Rs. 40,000 for postgraduate and postgraduate diploma courses and Rs. 1.6 lakh for undergraduate courses. They said the committee had erred in arriving at a lower fee structure. They urged the court to stay the notification. The Division Bench ordered issue of notices to the respondents and posted the case to further hearing on July 8.

Bail sought

Eight officials of the Hassan Zilla Panchayat, Arsikere Engineering Subdivision, who are facing inquiry by the Corps of Detectives (CoD) for their alleged involvement in the rice racket, have filed applications for anticipatory bail. The petitioners, K. Manjunath, K.N. Lokesh, H.K. Nage Gowda, N. Shivanandappa, P. Rajendran, K.B. Prabhakaran, B.G. Ranganath, K.R. Ravi, and G.H. Umesh, said that they were not involved in the racket.

They said that they had no power to act independently, and had acted at the behest of their senior officials. They had been made scapegoats and the CoD was harassing them to give confessional statements, they alleged. The contractors, local representatives, and politicians were involved in the distribution of foodgrains under the food for work programme, they alleged.

Direction

The Division Bench ordered the Education Department not to fill the posts of arts and drawing teachers in government high schools and colleges.

Niranjana K.C. and 37 others challenged the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT) order of September 22, 2003. The petitioners claimed that people with lesser qualifications had been appointed as arts and drawing teachers. They said 127 of the 147 posts had been filled.

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