HYDERABAD: The state government on Wednesday told the Telangana High Court that it was prepared to release the first phase of fee reimbursement for the current academic year while seeking vacation of the interim stay granted in a batch of more than 130 writ petitions filed by private educational institutions.
Appearing before Justice Juvvadi Sridevi, senior counsel S Raghuram and Special Government Pleader Rahul Reddy submitted that the Rs 2,800 crore cited by the colleges represents the total fee reimbursement requirement for students across all four years of study. They argued that the present exercise relates only to the first instalment for students taking admission into the first year and, therefore, the figure relied upon by the institutions was misplaced.
The state also submitted that admissions for the new academic year were scheduled to commence on July 10 and argued that insistence by colleges on payment of fees before granting admission could deprive economically weaker students of access to higher education.
Senior counsel S Sriram, L Ravichander and Avinash Desai, appearing for the private educational institutions, opposed the state’s applications to vacate the interim stay. They argued that the proposed system of crediting fee reimbursement directly into students’ bank accounts, with a direction to pay the colleges within one week, was unworkable.
After hearing both sides, Justice Juvvadi Sridevi adjourned the hearing to Thursday for further arguments on the state’s applications to vacate the interim stay.