Panel asked to look into exorbitant fees at pvt med colleges

Chennai, Apr 7: Madras High Court has directed the state Fee Fixation Committee to ascertain whether exorbitant fees were being charged by self-financing medical colleges in Tamil Nadu.

Passing the order on a PIL by the All-India Students Federation (AISF) alleging collection of exorbitant fees, a bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice MM Sundresh directed the Fee Fixation Committee to summon records from the colleges concerned for the past three years and to arrive at a conclusion.

AISF alleged that the fee was not charged as per the FeeFixation Committee guidelines in the case of students who wereallotted seats under merit in medical courses and the amounts were collected in two separate drafts by the medical colleges.

Even though the order was to be delivered only with respect to one Muthukumaran Medical College, the bench accepted the suggestion made by Additional Government Pleader P Sanjay Gandhi that the exercise be carried out in respect of all self-financing medical colleges in the state.

Reacting to the submissions by the counsel appearing for AISF that he was unable to produce the relevant material withregard to the payments made by the students and fear about the adverse consequences to be faced by students, the bench in its order, observed, "On a conspectus of the matter before us, there is grave doubt whether meritorious students are being charged fee as fixed."

After going through the materials placed before it, thecourt said, "Suffice it to say that the perusal of the material shown to us in confidence itself seems to be suggesting that something is fishy. As to what is the extent of truth in this can only be verified by the fee fixation committee."

Keeping in mind the nature of allegations, it would be appropriate for the committee to call for the accounts of the college, including the bank statements, to find out whether different amounts were being deposited over and above the amount of fee fixed, it said. The bench directed the committee submit a report and posted the case for compliance on July 30.

PTI