4 K'taka deemed varsities against govt fee regulation committee, tells HC they need to recover money spent through fees

Four deemed universities have moved the Karnataka High Court against the State and Fee Regulation Committee by saying they had no jurisdiction over them to fix the fee. Hearing the four different petitions, a division bench of Justice A S Bopanna and Justice Mohammad Nawaz ordered notice to the state government on Thursday.

The deemed universities are JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research from Mysuru, Nitte and Yenepoya Universities from Mangaluru and Devraj Urs Academy of Higher Education and Research from Kolar.

The petitioners — the deemed universities — have prayed to the court to quash the order dated June 27, 2018 passed by the Fee Regulatory Committee as it was arbitrary and illegal. Hence, they requested the court to declare that Section 2(g), 2(p), 2(q), 2(u), Section 6 and sub sections, and Section 7 of the Karnataka Professional Educational Institution (Regulations of admission and Determination of Fee) Act, 2006 were not applicable to the petitioners' universities.

“The action of the respondents, State and the Committee, is an attempt to take away the autonomy of the petitioners, so far as their right to fix their own fee structure is concerned. Such a right is safeguarded under Articles 19(1)(g) and 30(1) as a part and parcel of the fundamental right to carry on its occupation”, the petitioners claimed.

They contended that the right to determine the expenses to be incurred for better facilities and providing premium educational environment for achieving excellence and as a result, to fix its own fee structure.

The petitioners were entitled to have their own fee structure, keeping in mind the infrastructure and facilities available, investments made, salaries paid to teachers and staff, future plans for expansion, etc., they said.

It was also stated in the petitions that the administrative structure of deemed universities and affiliated private medical colleges were different. The additional facilities and administrative set up of deemed universities involve additional cost of running the deemed universities and contribute to higher unit cost of providing professional education of high quality.

One of the four universities contended that the first round of counselling was completed and the second round was awaited. Further, the last date for admission to UG Course was August 31, 2018. If the stay was not granted as interim relief, the university would be put to irreparable injury and hardship, it said.