NEW DELHI: In a relief to students pursuing professional courses like engineering and medicine in private colleges who have to face a fee hike midstream, Supreme Court has held that any change in fee structure after admission can be allowed only in exceptional circumstances.While appreciating the contribution of self-financing institutions to the education sector, a bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Alok Aradhe said there should be certainty regarding fees, and students must not be forced to pay more than that prescribed at the time of admission.“For the overwhelming majority of households, the fee payable for a professional course constitutes a substantial part of the family’s income and savings; it is not a matter of incidental expenditure. The parents make provisions for the fees… with the aspiration that their children will acquire better qualifications, secure better opportunities and build a future that may be better than their own. Many students and families also depend on educational loans to finance professional higher education,” SC said, noting fees charged in professional courses are reported to be 711% higher than in general courses.The court said it was a matter of good governance for the state and its regulatory bodies to create an ecosystem in which there was certainty about the financial obligation that students and their families need to undertake to acquire professional qualifications.
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“Adverse variations in financial commitment, and the insecurities that it may create, will impact the student and the family, and, in the long run, have an adverse effect on the quality and character of the professionals in the making. We are of the opinion that it is not difficult to formulate a scheme through which such uncertainties can be avoided,” it said.SC quashed a 37% fee hike for BTech courses for the 2023-27 cohort at Dr BC Roy Engineering College in West Bengal. The college had also imposed a new development fee.Passing an order in favour of students who had challenged the fee hike, the bench said, “The regulatory regime for fixation of fees, as contemplated in the decisions of this court, AICTE regulations, National Education Policy 2020 coupled with principles of certainty, necessitates the relevant authorities to notify fee payable for the entire course before a student takes admission… Variation is permissible only in exceptional instances such as unforeseen increase in the expenditure.“
