The Fee Regulation Committee (FRC), which has started hearing complaints from aggrieved students from unaided professional colleges, and with the number of complaints rising, has pointed to a shortage of staff and basic infrastructure.
The FRC is hearing appeals of students pertaining to professional colleges, demanding fees in excess of what is decided by government departments and the committee. In a recent case, the FRC asked a college to refund Rs 2.50 lakh to 21 students within 10 days.
“We have asked for appointing permanent staff with proper infrastructure in place to ensure the committee's functioning does not get interrupted in the absence of a chairman. There have been instances of delays in appointments, like a four-month gap in the appointment of a new committee after the term of Justice Subhash Adi ended, affecting the hearing of cases,” said a FRC member.
Former high court judge and FRC Chairman Justice Srinivas Gowda was appointed committee chairman in October 2023 and his tenure was renewed in October 2024.
He said the academic year starts from April and the CET hearing starts in May. Appointing committee members in October does not help as it should be ideally done in January, so that financial and academic details of colleges are assessed and the fee prescribed by the government is calculated and fixed.
Justice Gowda added that the committee should have at least a three-year tenure, so there is continuity in hearing of cases and maintaining college details.
The members said that this academic year, the committee has received around 300 complaints, 80 of them from October 2024. The member said complaints are few but the number of students appealing is more; one complaint was registered by 80 students from the same college.
The committee comprises a chairman, a retired judge appointed by the state government in consultation with the Karnataka High Court Chief Justice. The chairman appoints two experts as members.
The principal secretary of the education department and director of all India authoritative bodies, like the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) or Dental Council of India or National Medical Commission (NMC) are honorary members, who do not attend hearings.
Another committee member pointed, the FRC functioning gets hindered when colleges enter into consensual agreements with ministers for revising their annual fee structure.
