SC quashes AP’s GO on seven-fold increase of tuition fee in private medical colleges

Vijayawada: The Supreme Court has quashed an order issued by the Andhra Pradesh government enhancing the tuition fee of private medical colleges by seven times to Rs 24 lakh per annum.

A division bench of Justices M.R. Shah and Sudhanshu Dhulia held a hearing on Monday and observed, “Education is not the business to earn profit. The tuition fee shall always be affordable.”

The court said that issuing a GO enhancing tuition fee based on representations made by private medical colleges was wholly impermissible and most arbitrary. This was likely done with a view to favouring or obliging the private medical colleges.

The court dismissed an appeal filed by a private medical college and upheld the AP High Court order.

The court noted that it was by accepting the report of the Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee that the state government issued GO dated 18-06-2011, fixing and enhancing the fee for the academic years 2011-12 to 2103-14. However, for the block year 2017-2020, the state government issued a GO dated 06.09.2017 enhancing the tuition fee for the MBBS students without waiting for the report of the AFRC.

Earlier, the AP High Court hearing writ petitions challenging the GO observed that the fee could not be enhanced without the recommendations or report from AFRC.

The apex court observed that the state government could not have enhanced the fee during the review pending with AFRC. The medical colleges could not be permitted to retain the amount collected illegally pursuant to the GO. The fixation or review of fee should be within the parameters of the fee fixation rules, it said.

The court imposed the cost of Rs 5 lakh to be paid equally by both the appellants and the AP government.