Medical colleges to refund excess fee: panel

The Admission Overseeing Committee headed by Justice B Manohar has passed an order recommending that the state government direct the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), Bengaluru, to communicate to the colleges concerned to refund the excess fee collected to students with 6% interest and follow the order passed by the committee.

This follows a complaint by a few parents and students who got admission in two private medical colleges, one in Bengaluru and another in Mangaluru in 2017-18.

They said the colleges collected excess fee over and above the stipulated amount (Rs 70,000 to Rs 3 lakh). After issuing notices to the colleges and hearing the case, the Committee headed by the retired judge had recently passed an order, asking college managements to follow the order.

The copy of the order available with DH reads, “The committee recommends to the government to direct Rajiv Gandhi University Health Sciences to order for refund of sum collected from students with 6% interest, failing which the university may be directed to impose a fine of twice the amount collected, make necessary recommendations to the competent authority for withdrawal of recognition and affiliation granted to the colleges and take necessary action under the provisions of the (Prohibition of Capitation Fee) Act, 1984, and the Karnataka Education Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Act, 2006.”

According to the committee members, there are not many complaints for the academic year 2018-19.

“As the fee regulatory committee existed during the 2018-19 academic year and the fee was fixed by the committee, colleges were also careful and did not invite trouble by collecting the excess fee,” says one of the members of the committee.

The tuition fee prescribed for government quota students during 2017-18 was Rs 77,500. Colleges collected excess fee between Rs 70,000 and Rs 3 lakh. The documents produced by colleges before the committee show that they collected the excess fee. The excess fee was collected under various heads, including tuition fee, university fee, hostel and mess fee.

In one particular case, a private medical college had withheld the Rs-3 lakh loan amount released to a student from the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation (Arivu loan) towards the second-year fees. The committee had ordered the college to release the amount within 30 days.