New Delhi, Nov 8, 2022: On Monday, the Supreme Court upheld the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s decision to strike down the state government’s decision to increase annual tuition fees for MBBS courses in private unaided medical colleges.
The government had earlier decided to enhance the fees to Rs. 24 lakhs per annum, which is seven times more than the fee fixed earlier.
A bench of justices MR Shah and Sudhanshu Dhulia said: “We are of the opinion that the High Court has not committed any error in quashing and setting aside the Government Order dated September 6, 2017, enhancing the tuition fee for the block years 2017-2020.”
The court further added: “To enhance the fee to Rs 24 lakhs per annum i.e., seven times more than the fee fixed earlier was not justifiable at all. Education is not the business to earn profit. The tuition fee shall always be affordable.”
The court also imposed costs of Rs. 2.5 lakh each on the state government and also on the appellant medical colleges to refund the extra fees recovered from the students under the Government Order (GO) issued in 2017 via which the state had hiked the fees.
The judges held that determination of fee or review of fee, must be within the parameters of the fixation rules and shall have direct nexus to:
– location of the professional Institution
-nature of the professional course
– cost of available infrastructure
– expenditure on administration and
maintenance
– reasonable surplus required for growth and
development of the Institution
-revenue foregone on account of waiver of fee, if any, in respect of reserved category students
All these factors are required to be considered by the AFRC while reviewing the tuition fees, the bench noted.
