HC directs issue of hand summons to fee committee

The petition sought the implementation and revelation of the Padmaraj Committee report on fee regulation for engineering courses.

An earlier petition on the same grounds had been filed by R L Jalappa Institute of Technology. The petitions will now be heard together. A notice to the State and the Fee Regulatory Committee was issued in this case.

Justice Padmaraj was appointed as the Chairman of the Fee Regulatory Committee to determine the fee structure in professional engineering and medical colleges in May 2010.

SC judgment

As per a 2005 Supreme Court judgment, the State government has to appoint a fee regulatory committee that will determine fees to be charged for a period of three years.
But the State will have to forego seats in private colleges for CET.

To overcome this, the government and private colleges have been entering into consensual agreements over the last few years, whereby certain percentage of seats will be allotted via CET, and the fee will be mutually determined. The government had fixed the fees for engineering courses at Rs 30,000 but the private colleges have insisted on Rs 50,000 annually.

Govt decision binding

However, a High Court judgment in November 2009 ruled that if the government accepts the fee regulatory committee’s report, colleges have to mandatorily abide by it, overriding any consensual agreement.

But the High Court did not pass a judgment in the event that the government does not accept the fee regulatory committee report, as the case is pending with the Supreme Court.

The State government, along with private managements, has gone to the Supreme Court challenging the High Court verdict.