Tamil Nadu   

Fixed fee structure for private medical colleges by June 30

Special Correspondent

Colleges not to charge fees for next academic year till structure is set

CHENNAI: Fee structure for private unaided medical colleges in Tamil Nadu shall be fixed by the statutory committee concerned on or before June 30, the Madras High Court has said.

On their part, the colleges have informed the court that they would not charge fees for the next academic year till the permanent committee fixed the fee structure.

An order in this regard was passed by the First Bench comprising Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Justice Chitra Venkataraman on a batch of petitions, including the one filed by the Student's Federation of India (SFI).

The Bench asked the three private medical colleges concerned to appear before the Permanent Committee for Fixation of Fees in Self-Financing Professional Colleges on May 7 with all relevant documents. The Committee would process the claims expeditiously and fix a fee structure on or before June 30.

"It is needless to say that in the event of the Committee fixing an annual fee at a lower rate, the excess amount collected by the institutions shall be adjusted towards the fee for the next academic year," the Judges said. They also gave liberty to the institutions to approach the court if the Committee failed to fix the fee structure within the stipulated time.

In August 2004, the Permanent Committee had fixed Rs.1.3 lakh per annum as fee for students admitted under the Government quota in private unaided medical colleges.

However, there was no restriction with regard to the fees collected from students admitted under the management quota and the non-resident Indians quota. The structure was to be in place from 2004 to 2007.

When the three private institutions sought review of the direction, a single judge of the court passed an interim order permitting them to collect Rs.4 lakh per year. Pointing out that the interim order had gone beyond the relief claimed in the writ petitions, SFI secretary Selva said, "even if the two writ petitions are allowed, the colleges concerned will not get the right to collect Rs.4 lakh."

Burden on middle class

N.G.R. Prasad, counsel for the SFI, argued that when middle class parents were finding it difficult to pay even the Committee-stipulated Rs.1.3 lakh, forcing them to pay Rs.4 lakh per year would amount to pushing parents into a perpetual debt trap.

He said collecting fees in excess of the structure laid down by the Committee was nothing but collection of capitation fee, and added that the self-financing institutions should not challenge the fees fixed by the Committee, even while enjoying the freedom of collecting fees of their choice from the management quota and NRI quota students.

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