The Hindu : Karnataka News : High Court may pass orders on fees in private medical colleges on May 31

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 27, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

High Court may pass orders on fees in private medical colleges on May 31

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday indicated that it would pass orders on May 31 on the fees to be charged by private professional colleges for undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) medical and dental courses in the State. It observed that no college will be allowed to charge exorbitant fees.

A Division Bench, comprising the Chief Justice, Nauvdip Kumar Sodhi, and Justice N. Kumar, said it will pass interim orders on the fees to be collected this year by the colleges. It said the fees recommended by the Fee Fixation Committee last year will be taken into consideration while passing the interim orders.

The Bench was hearing a petition by Dr. Priyanka Veeramani and 21 other PG students from the M.S. Ramaiah Medical College, Bangalore, seeking collection of reasonable fee. The petitioners said they joined the PG medical course last year by initially paying a tentative fee of Rs. 2 lakhs. They said on April 16, 2004, a notification was issued enhancing the fees to Rs. 3.82 lakhs. The fees was later brought down to Rs, 2.22 lakhs.

They said the college had sent a notice this year to all students asking them to pay Rs. 3.8 lakhs for clinical courses, Rs. 1.32 lakhs for para-clinical and Rs. 3.24 lakhs for PG diploma courses.

They urged the court to quash the notices and direct the college to collect the fees fixed by the Fee Committee.

The Bench asked the Government advocate what action the Government will take if the colleges did not obey its order. "Are the colleges free to collect whatever fees they want?" it asked.

It indicated that it would pass an interim order for a uniform fee structure for UG and PG courses this year. It observed that it will not allow the fees to vary from one student to another but adopt a uniform fee structure.

The Bench said it will have to be fair to everyone, including the parties. It, however, said it will not allow the exorbitant fees of Rs. 3.75 lakhs.

On Wednesday, a Bench comprising the Chief Justice, Nauvdip Kumar Sodhi, and Justice B.S. Patil had came down heavily on private medical colleges for collecting exorbitant fees and said it will not allow "education shops" to operate.

The Bench had made the observation on a petition by Kaustav Mahapatra and 15 students seeking a direction to JSS Medical College in Mysore to collect fee for MBBS courses as fixed by the Fee Fixation Committee.

The students said that while students admitted under Government quota were to pay Rs. 1.62 lakhs, those admitted under management quota were to pay Rs. 3.75 lakhs.

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