BENGALURU: Four deemed universities have moved the Karnataka High Court against the state and Fee Regulation Committee claiming that they had no jurisdiction over them to fix the fee. Hearing the four different petitions, a division bench of Justices A S Bopanna and Mohammad Nawaz ordered notice to the state government on Thursday.
The deemed universities are JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research from Mysuru, Nitte and Yenepoya Universities from Mangaluru and Devraj Urs Academy of Higher Education and Research from Kolar. They have sought to the court to quash the order dated June 27, 2018 passed by the Fee Regulatory Committee saying it was arbitrary and illegal. Hence, they requested the court to declare that Sections 2(g), 2(p), 2(q), 2(u), Section 6 and sub-sections, and Section 7 of the Karnataka Professional Educational Institution (Regulations of admission and Determination of Fee) Act, 2006 were not applicable to them.
“The action of the state and the Committee is an attempt to take away the autonomy of the petitioners so far as their right to fix their own fee structure is concerned. Such a right is safeguarded under Articles 19(1)(g) and 30(1) as a part and parcel of the fundamental right to carry on its occupation,” the petitioners claimed. They said the right to determine the expenses to be incurred for better facilities and providing premium educational environment for achieving excellence lies with them and as a result, to fix their fee structure.
It was also stated that the administrative structure of deemed universities and affiliated private medical colleges were different. The additional facilities and administrative set-up of deemed universities involve additional cost of running the deemed universities and contribute to higher unit cost of providing professional education.
One of the four universities said the first round of counselling was completed and the second round was awaited. Further, the last date for admission to UG courses was August 31. If a stay was not granted as interim relief, the university will be put to irreparable injury, it said.