The Hindu : Kerala News : Mohammed panel urged to reject fee structure

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Wednesday, Jun 25, 2008
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Kerala

Mohammed panel urged to reject fee structure

Special Correspondent

‘The proposed fee structure is arbitrary’
Plea to uphold the fee fixed in 2006

KANNUR: The Thalassery-based People’s Council for Civil Rights has urged the fee regulatory committee, headed by P.A. Mohammed, to reject the fee structure proposed in an agreement between the State government and a group of self-financing college managements.

In a memorandum, the council urged the committee to uphold the fee structure determined by it in 2006, which, it said, is in force legally.

The memorandum said the Supreme Court had upheld the powers and functions of the committee under Section 6 of the Kerala professional colleges Act.

Profiteering

The Act was intended to end profiteering and the exploitative fee structure in self-financing institutions. Since the committee had approved the fee structure on considering the factors required under the law, the fee determined by it could be changed only through the procedure prescribed in the Act. The fee structure proposed in the agreement was arbitrary, exorbitant and devoid of any legal and factual basis. Neither the State government nor the colleges had any right to determine the fees every year and send it to the committee for ratification, the memorandum said.

The memorandum recalled that the Kerala High Court had stayed the operation of a similar agreement last year. A Division Bench upheld the order of a Single Bench, and that meant the stay was in force.

Hence, revision of the fee structure was illegal.

The government could not interfere with the powers of the committee, envisaged as a watchdog body against profiteering and the exploitative fee structure in self-financing institutions, the memorandum said.

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