HC rejects Kerala Govt appeal on self-financing colleges case

Kochi, July 29: Rejecting the Kerala government's appeal against the July 18 order of a single judge, the High Court today upheld the interim order made by single judge allowing the managements of self-financing professional colleges to go ahead with their selection process for admitting students to 50 per cent management quota for this academic year.

The only modification made by the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice V K Bali and Jutice M Ramachandran was granting permission to the state government to proceed against self-financing medical colleges if they committed irregularities in admission in the 50 per cent quota.

The Bench also made it clear that if the government intended to take action against these erring medical colleges, a prior notice should be given to the institutions concerned and the affected students.

The court did not go into the merits of the contentions raised against the Kerala Self-Financing Regulation Act of 2006.

The court has decided to hear final arguments in the matter on September 12.

The Single Judge interim order of July 18 allowed the mangements of self-financing professional collges to proceed with their admission process to 50 per cent management seats and charge fees fixed by the K T Thomas Committee. The court in the order, however, declined to stay the operation of the Kerala Self-Financing Colleges Regulation Act, 2006, or the couselling process for admission to colleges.

In the order Justice S Siri Jagan said, justice and balance of convenience dictate that for this acedemic year, nothwithstanding the fact that the impugned Act (new Act) came into force subsequent to the interim order dated May 29, 2006, of the Supreme Court of India, the said interim order shall govern the fee chargeable and the quota of seats.

According to the Supreme Court order, the managements and the government were allotted seats in the ratio of 50:50. The apex court also ordered that they should follow a uniform fee structure as recommended by the K T Thomas Committee.

As per the Kerala Self-Financing Colleges Regulation Act 2006, brought by the LDF Government, the managements had a quota of only 30 per cent while the government could make admissions to 70 per cent seats.

Also, the Act provided for 35 per cent reservation in the government quota. It also stipulated that government college fee would be levied in the government quota seats in private colleges.

The K T Thomas committee had on the other hand recommended a uniform fee structure for all seats in the private colleges, which was higher than the government college fee.

UNI