The Supreme Court of India, on Monday, September 5, issued a notice in response to a petition that challenged the validity of the National Medical Commission's (NMC) order directing that the fee of 50 per cent of seats in private medical colleges and deemed universities should be at par with the fee in government medical colleges in that state and union territory, as per a report by LiveLaw. 

The report stated that the petition was moved by the Association of Health Sciences Institutes (AHSI), which said that the Supreme Court, in various judgements, had repeatedly stated that the method for fixation of fees will be subject to considering various guidelines such as facilities available in the college, infrastructure, age of investment made and so on. The petition also contended that the guidelines prescribed in the Impugned Office Memorandum (OM) issued by the NMC on February 3, 2022, regarding the fee issue, are beyond the powers conferred upon the commission and have no validity in the eyes of law, as per LiveLaw. 

In fact, the Kerala High Court had passed an order on September 1 that the direction of the NMC that private medical colleges and deemed universities will have to allot fees as per government college benchmarks for 50 per cent of their seats will not apply to colleges in the state. 

A Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli granted two weeks' time to the NMC to file a counter affidavit in the matter, as per LiveLaw.