Autonomous college gets to fix own
fees
Court
Notice To AG As `2 Laws Are In Conflict'
The Bombay high court on Tuesday
granted interim relief to Somaiya College of Engineering, an unaided autonomous
institution, till November by giving it protection against any coercive action
by the fee regulatory authority , which had warned it of a Rs 5 lakh penalty
for failure to submit fee structures for approval.
A
bench of Justices Bhushan Gavai and Sandeep Shinde observed that the college's
petition over fee fixation has raised significant issues involving conflict
between two prevailing laws in Maharashtra and issued notice to the state
advocate general (AG).
The
HC, however, directed the college to maintain accounts of the fees that will be
charged to students in 2017-18.The order is likely to benefit other such
institutes too. L J Welingkar Institute of Management also has separately moved
the HC, through advocate Akshay Shinde, claiming autonomy , for similar relief.
In
July , the fee regulator had held that it has the jurisdiction to regulate the
college's fees under the Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Educational
Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fees) Act, 2015. Somaiya College says
the 2015 law does not apply to it for fee fixations.Its counsel Aspi Chinoy
told the HC the “concept of autonomy means right to fix fees“.He argued that
under the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016, the definitions of college
and autonomous college are different, and pointed to provisions that exclude
autonomous colleges from the grip of the fee fixation regulation.
State
counsel L M Acharya argued that the 2015 and 2016 Acts are not at conflict with
each other. He said that the 2015 Act is a special law that deals with a
limited aspect of governing admission and fees for all unaided private
professional colleges, while the latter Act is a general Act that applies to
other aspects of all colleges including autonomous or unaided professional
institutes.
Justice
Gavai dictating the order said: “In view of sections 101(1) and 101(7) of the
2016 Act, autonomous institutions cannot be subject to purview of fee
fixation.'' But he added: “Prima facie, we are of the view that state is free
to devolve fee fixation mechanism in spite of exception being carved.''
Source | Times of India | 11th October
2017
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior Manager @
Knowledge Repository
Khaitan &
Co
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