Supreme Court: The Andhra Pradesh government’s decision to raise prices to Rs. 24 lakhs per annum, which is seven times more than the fee imposed earlier, is not justifiable, the Supreme Court stated on Monday, noting that education is not a business to earn profit and tuition fees should stay cheap. On Monday, a bench of judges led by MR Shah and Sudhanshu Dhulia upheld the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s ruling that invalidated the state government’s plan to raise tuition for MBBS students.
The Andhra Pradesh government increased the tuition charges for MBBS students by government decree dated September 6, 2017.
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SC upholds decision of AP High Court
The government order dated September 6, 2017 was quashed and set aside, the court ruled,
“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. To enhance the fee to ₹ 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.”
SC establishes fixing guidelines for fee reviews
The court noted that the establishment of fees or reviews of fees must be made within the confines of the fixation rules and must be directly related to the factors listed in Rule 4 of the Rules, 2006, which include the location of the professional institution, the nature of the professional course, the cost of the available infrastructure, the cost of administration and maintenance, and a reasonable surplus needed for the professional institution’s growth and development.
The court stated that when deciding or evaluating the tuition costs, the Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (AFRC) must take these facts into account.
“The management cannot be permitted to retain the amount recovered/collected pursuant to the illegal Government Order dated 06.09.2017. The medical colleges are the beneficiaries of the illegal Government Order dated September 6, 2017, which is rightly set aside by the High Court,” the court stated as it took note of the fact that medical colleges had used the money for a number of years and kept it with them while students paid the exorbitant tuition fee after obtaining a loan from financial institutions and banks and paying the higher rate of interest.
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Therefore, the court stated, “It is not necessary to interfere with the directives issued by the High Court to refund the amount of tuition fee collected pursuant to Government Order dated September 6, 2017, after revising the amount payable as per the previous determination.” The top court dismissed the medical college’s appeals against the Andhra Pradesh High Court ruling with these findings, the apex court stated.
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