Supreme Court rejects plea seeking fee relief for EWS students in private medical colleges

The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea seeking that private medical colleges charge fees on par with government medical colleges, Bar and Bench reported. The apex court upheld the Rajasthan High Court’s ruling that had found the fee structure fixed by the State Fee Regulatory Committee, stating that the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) reservation applied only at the stage of admission and does not entitle candidates to subsidised fees in private medical colleges, the report said.

The report also says that Justice Nagarathna, during the hearing, said: “ Private medical colleges cannot be expected to offer its courses at subsidised fees like government colleges . That cannot be. One person cannot come and say that private is exorbitant, so make it like the government. These are self-financing institutes. For government ones...they get grants (subsidies) from the State. There is a vital difference.”

Pointing to the Supreme Court’s ruling in TMA Pai, the judge stated that while capitalisation fees are banned, general college fees charged by private institutions are not prohibited, the report said.

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The court further cautioned against undermining the role of private institutions in medical education , “assistance of private medical colleges to the State in the field of medical education will stop then...We need doctors,” said Justice Nagarathna in the report.

On the question of affordability, the judge suggested that candidates unable to pay the fees could explore scholarships or financial subvention, as per the report.

“The plea had been filed by an EWS candidate who submitted that tuition fees in private medical colleges in Rajasthan range between Rs 18.9 lakh and Rs 25 lakh per year. This, he argued, effectively renders the EWS quota ineffective in practice, as candidates within the Rs 8 lakh income bracket cannot realistically afford such education, the report added.

However, the Rajasthan High Court rejected the request, and held that the fee structure had been fixed by the State Fee Regulatory Committee in accordance with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Islamic Academy of Education v. State of Karnataka, it said.

The high court also observed that “the absence of any statutory provision mandating fee concessions meant that high fees, by themselves, could not be treated as a denial of EWS reservation, even if they limited practical access for eligible candidates,” the report read.