Raman Committee directed to expedite fixing of fee structure

Chennai, Apr 25 (UNI) The adras High Court today directed the Justice A Raman Committee for fixation of fees in Self-Financing Professional Colleges, to expedite the matter of fixing fee structure on or before June 30, 2007.

Passing orders on a batch of petitions from the Students Federation of India (SFI) and others, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice Chitra Venkataraman gave the directive and asked three private medical institutions to appear before the Committee on May 7n with all relevant materials supporting their claim.

In its order, the Bench said it was needless to say that in the event of the Committee fixing the annual fee at a lower rate than the amount collected by the institutions, the excess amount would be liable to be adjusted towards fees for the next academic year.

Counsel for the institutions stated that the colleges would not charge fees for the next academic year till the Committee fixed the fee. Hence, the institutions are at liberty to approach the court in case the Committee does not fix the fee within the stipulated time, the Bench added.

In its petition, the SFI submitted that following an order of the apex court, the state government constituted a committee headed by retired judge Justice A Raman to fix the fees to be collected by the self-financing medical colleges.

The Committee fixed the fee at Rs 1.30 lakh as fees to be collected from the students allotted by the Government. The fee structure was to be in force from 2004 to 2007.

While so, the three private medical institutions filed applications to review the fee structure. However, the Committee rejected the applications. One institution filed a writ petition and by way of interim order, the institution was allowed to collect Rs four lakh as fees from the government allotted students.

The other two institutions filed petitions to direct the Committee to reconsider its decision. The SFI gave representation to the government but even one year later, the government had not taken any steps to vacate the interim order. Following this, Parents Association also filed a petition and a notice was ordered.

The SFI contended that the institutions were openly pressurising the students. They may succumb to the pressures of the management.

Hence, the present PIL to restrain the institutions from charging any fees in excess of the fees fixed by the Committee, the SFI added.

UNI