Madras High Court directs UGC to constitute fee fixation committee in 2 weeks

The Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the University Grants Commission (UGC) to constitute a fee fixation committee within two weeks to decide on the fees for medical courses in the deemed universities in the union territory of Puducherry. The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar, gave the directive on a batch of Public Interest Litigations (PIL) seeking fee fixation for the medical courses.

The court adjourned the hearing on the PILs till August 18, on a petition filed by one V B R Menon, seeking to constitute a fee fixation committee for deemed universities in Puducherry. Earlier, Assistant Solicitor General Su Sreenivasan, who appeared on behalf of the Centre, submitted that the names of two persons, including a union health ministry official, had already been recommended as a member of the committee. He also produced a copy of the health ministry's order in this regard.

The counsel for another petitioner, Jawaharlal Shanmugam, who sought a similar committee for Tamil Nadu, submitted that various deemed universities fixed the fees as per their wish, ranging from Rs 18 lakh to Rs 23 lakh. Senior counsel A L Somayaji, appearing for one of the institutes, submitted that as per a Supreme Court direction, each institute could fix its own fees on the basis of the infrastructure facilities made available to the students.