PUDUCHERRY: The Madras High Court on Friday issued a directive to the Puducherry government, restraining them from enforcing the newly introduced fee structure of August 18, 2023, for students selected for Post-Graduate medical courses for the academic year 2023-24. The interim order comes in response to a contempt petition filed by a private medical college in Puducherry.
Justice R Suresh Kumar J, in his ruling, affirmed that educational institutions are at liberty to collect the fees that had already been fixed by the Fee Committee, led by a Former Judge of the High Court, for the academic year 2022-23.
The Centralised Admission Committee of the Puducherry Government (CENTAC), responsible for fee collection, has been instructed to follow the fee structure prevailing prior to the August 18 order or permit institutions to collect fees as per the previous fee structure. This directive stands in effect pending the outcome of both the ongoing contempt petition and the main writ petition, the latter of which challenges the government's fee structure order issued on October 28, 2022, valid for a three-year period.
Justice Suresh Kumar maintained that the government order violated the Court's order on November 4, 2022, while passing this order.
The primary writ petition was filed by a private medical college, contesting the Puducherry government's fee order from October 28, 2022, on the grounds that it did not adhere to the fee structure set by the Fee Committee. The fee fixed by the Fee Committee with higher fees had sparked public outcry. Consequently, the Lieutenant Governor and Chief Minister formulated a new fee structure and issued orders on October 28, which was subsequently challenged in the Madras High Court.
The court had previously intervened on November 4, 2022, issuing an interim stay on the implementation of the government's fee order of October 28, 2022, which had unilaterally established a different fee structure for medical courses. The court instructed that for the academic year 2022-23, the fee structure set by the Committee, overseen by the Former Judge of the High Court, should be followed.
However, as the academic year 2023-2024 commenced, and admissions set to begin, there was no finalized fee structure in place due to the ongoing court proceedings. In response, the government released an interim fee order on August 18, 2023, aimed at facilitating the commencement of the admission process. This move was contested by Kamalanathan, the counsel for the private medical colleges, who argued that this new fee structure contradicted the court's interim order on November 4, 2022.
Now the ruling from the Madras High Court, issued on August 25, 2023, implies that the fee structure established by the Fee Committee, in 2022, will remain in effect until a final verdict is given in the ongoing writ petition.
Amidst this legal tussle, post-graduate (PG) students who were expected to begin reporting to their respective medical colleges for admission on August 26, 2023, following the first round of counseling, found themselves caught in a state of confusion.