Private medical colleges want to hike fee, move Madras HC

Private medical colleges want to hike fee, move Madras HC

The fee structure was maintained for 2020-21 by the panel chaired by by Justice K Venkataraman by taking into account the pandemic.

Express News Service

17 Nov 2024, 12:49 pm

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has ordered notice to the government and the Committee for Fixation of Fee for private self-financing colleges on a petition filed by the TN Self-Financing Medical Colleges Association seeking increase in the fee for MBBS for 2022-25 academic years by revoking an order passed by the committee in this regard.

A division bench of Justices D Krishnakumar and PB Balaji on Friday directed the respondent authorities to file counter-affidavit to the petition and adjourned the matter by two weeks.

The petition noted that the committee headed by Justice NV Balasubramanian fixed the fee for MBBS for 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 as Rs 3.9 lakh for government quota, Rs 12.5 lakh for management quota and Rs 23.5 lakh for NRI quota by its order date June 6, 2017.

The fee structure was maintained for 2020-21 by the panel chaired by by Justice K Venkataraman by taking into account the pandemic. The association had sought the committee to revise the annual fee for UG and PG medical course for 2021-22 considering the increase in expenditure including salaries, delayed payment fees and other difficulties in running the institutions.

The committee fixed separate fee structures for government quota, management quota, NRI quota and NRI lapsed quota for 2022-23, which will be in force for three years, through proceedings dated October 15, 2022, it said. But, for the two state university private colleges, the fee fixed by the committee is higher than that of the self-financing medical colleges, it alleged.

The association said an average Rs 4.35 lakh has been fixed for government quota for self-financing colleges while Rs 5.4 lakh fixed for the same quota for the state university private colleges. There is disparity in other quotas too.

It sought the court to issue orders to quash the proceedings of the committee passed in 2022 and the consequential proceedings dated September 19, 2024 and direct the panel to fix fees afresh and allow self-financing colleges to collect fees on a par with state university private colleges.