HC notice to State on engg fee

The High Court on Friday ordered issue of notice to the State government in connection with a petition filed by private engineering colleges. The colleges had filed the petition with regard to fee fixation for engineering courses.

The petitioners, APS Educational Trust and 12 others, have contended that the State government is asking them to sign the consensual agreement on fee structure in spite of it constituting a Fee Regulatory Committee under the chairmanship of former High Court judge Justice Ajit J Gunjal in accordance with the provisions of the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Act, 2006.The colleges have sought that the government should allow the committee to decide fees according to the costs incurred by each individual college. 

The petitioners have said: “Instead of fixing the fees, the government is arbitrarily forcing the colleges to carry forward fee structure of the previous year.” 

The division bench comprising Justices K L Manjunath and Ravi Malimath has ordered notice to the Fee Regulatory Committee too along with  the State government.Engineering colleges in the State have refused to sign the fee and seat sharing agreement with the State government unless the government permits a hike in the course fee. 

Institutions that have moved the Court include APS Educational Trust, R V College of Engineering, Acharya Institute of Technology, National Institute of Engineering, GSSS Institute of Engineering and Technology for Women, among a list of 13 institutions.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, management member of one of the engineering colleges said their submission was that the government should at least consider the cost per student incurred in University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) and fix the fees on a par with it in private colleges. 

“We do not want any profit. We at least want the costs to be recovered. The AICTE on the other hand specifies a number of material infrastructure for colleges to meet its benchmark. With colleges suffering losses, they will never be able to upgrade their infrastructure to meet the required standards.”