Education is not a profit-making business, tuition fees should be affordable: Supreme Court

Delhi: Increasing the fee to Rs 24 lakh per annum i.e. seven times the fee fixed earlier is not sustainable. Education is not a profit making business. Tuition fees should always be affordable,” the court said. Education is not a profit-making business, tuition fees should be affordable: Supreme Court.

Education is not a profit-making business and tuition fees should always be affordable, says Supreme Court) said on Monday that the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to increase the annual fee to Rs 24 lakh, seven times the prescribed fee. The court said this is not sustainable.

A bench of Justices MR Shah and Sudhanshu Dhulia said this on Monday while upholding the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s order quashing the state government’s decision to increase tuition fees payable by MBBS students. The Government of Andhra Pradesh through its Government Order on September 6, 2017 has increased the tuition fees payable by MBBS students.

We are of the view that the High Court did not commit any error in setting aside the government order of September 6, 2017 increasing tuition fees for the block years 2017-2020, we are of the view.“Increasing the fee to Rs 24 lakh per annum i.e. seven times the fee fixed earlier is not sustainable. Education is not a profit making business. “Tuition fees should always be affordable,” the court said.

The determination of fee/revision of fee shall be within the parameters of the prescribed rules and shall have direct bearing on the factors mentioned in Rule 4 of the Rules, 2006 which include the location of the professional body.

These include location of professional institute, nature of professional course, cost of available infrastructure, expenditure on administration and maintenance, reasonable additional expenditure required for growth and development of professional institute including any fee waiver in respect of students belonging to reserved category and other economically weaker sections of the society.

The Court observed that the Admission and Fee Control Committee (AFRC) is required to consider these factors while determining/revising tuition fees. The court held that the Andhra Pradesh High Court had committed no error in issuing directions to refund the amount of tuition fees collected under the government order dated September 6, 2017.

“Therefore, the court said that the High Court was fully justified in setting aside the government order dated September 6, 2017.“Management is not permitted to retain the amount recovered / collected as per illegal Government order dated 06.09.2017. The medical colleges are the beneficiaries of the illegal government order dated September 6, 2017, which has been rightly quashed by the High Court,” the court said, noting that the medical colleges have used and kept the amount for several years.

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On the other hand over the years students have been paying exorbitant tuition fees after taking loans from financial institutions and banks and paying high interest rates. “Therefore, there is no need to interfere with the directions issued by the High Court to refund the amount of tuition fees collected as per government order dated September 6, 2017, after adjusting the amount payable as per the previous resolution,” the court said. The Supreme Court also dismissed the appeals filed by the medical college against the Andhra Pradesh High Court order.