Telangana High Court stalls fee hike in medical super speciality courses

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has set aside Government Order No. 78 which was issued to enhance the fees payable for super speciality courses in private unaided postgraduate medical colleges under the management quota from Rs 5,85,000 to Rs 25,00,000.

A division bench comprising Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice P. Keshava Rao declared that the GO was issued without following the procedure prescribed by law according to which it needs to be approved by the Fees Regulatory Committee. The bench was dealing with a petition filed by Dr Y. Anil Reddy, who secured a seat in M.Ch (Urology) in a private unaided minority college. Dr Reddy challenged the revision in fees which was made after the completion of the first phase of counselling for post-graduate super specialty course students.

The petitioner submitted that the GO was issued without consulting with the fee regulatory committee.

Counsel for the petitioner submitted that the government had to constitute a committee headed by a retired judge of the High Court for the revision of fees and the authorities should act in accordance with its recommendations. "The government never consulted the fee regulatory committee before enhancing the fee to Rs 25,00,000," counsel submitted.

In defence of the GO, the state government argued that the fees had not been enhanced since 2011. Government counsel attempted to make a comparison of the fee charged by institutions in the state with the those by institutions in the neighboring states.

As the enhancement of fee was not conducted on the basis of the recommendations from the fee regulatory committee, the court has set aside the order.

The fee payable per annum was Rs 5,85,000 for private unaided minority medical colleges, the fee payable by students admitted under the quota for competent authority in non-minority institutions was Rs 3,70,000, and the fee payable by those admitted under the management quota was Rs.7,50,000.