Special Correspondent

Kochi; The Kerala High Court on Friday permitted the managements of five self-financing medical colleges to collect Rs.3.5 lakh as annual fee from students seeking admission to the MBBS course in their colleges.

Justice P.R. Ramachandra Menon issued the order while staying the Fee Regulatory Committee's order fixing a fee ranging from Rs.2.54 lakh to Rs.2.73 lakh for the course in these colleges with which the State government had signed a seat-sharing agreement. The petitions were filed by Kannur Medical College; MES Medical College, Perinthalmanna; Dr. Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College, Karakonam; Assisia Medical College, Kollam; and Travancore Medical College, Kollam.

The court allowed the managements to collect Rs.3.5 lakh as annual fee subject to the condition that the fee would be reimbursed if the court finally found that the fee was excess.

The court observed that prima facie it appeared that the course pursued by the committee was not correct and the fee did not "reconcile with the approved figures of the previous year."

The petitioners contended that the committee had no power or jurisdiction or competence to fix the fee of self-financing colleges. In fact, the right to prescribe the fee was vested with individual managements by virtue of the right under Article 19(1) (g) to carry on any occupation, trade, or business.

The petitioner pointed out that a Division Bench had in 2010 allowed the five self-financing colleges which refused to sign a seat-sharing agreement with the government to collect a fee of Rs.3.5 lakh. The committee had prescribed the present fee ignoring the Division Bench's order. In fact, the petitioners had submitted their proposal for fixing a higher fee after taking into account the monthly cost incurred by them for running the college.

According to various High Court and Supreme Court verdicts, the fee should be adequate enough to meet the proportionate cost of investments made by the managements in the infrastructure and other heads.