No charging high fees, Supreme Court tells Private Medical Colleges without MCI clearance [Read the Order]

The Supreme Court on September 18 had allowed the private medical colleges, which are not having a clearance by MCI to admit students in the 2014-15 academic session. These colleges are such that they are having the required infrastructure but do not have the required clearance certificate from the Medical Council of India. The order on September 18 was a huge news from such colleges, as they would have gone without any students if there were no such order.

However, it seems, the happiness has been curtailed to an extent. Such private medical colleges, known for their high fees structure have been ordered by the Apex Court that they should have fees at par with the government medical colleges.

The Bench of Justices A R Dave, Vikramjit Sen and U U Lalit also ordered that the fee structure that is at par with the fees taken by government colleges would be applicable to students for all five years, i.e. the whole duration of the course.

The Supreme Court also did away with the concept of management quota in relation to its previous order, the Court said, "In cases where two separate lists are prepared and sent by the State agencies one relating to State quota and the other relating to management quota in private institutions, we clarify that for the current academic year there shall be only one list and that shall be the "State quota" alone. There shall not be any managementquota  list  to  be  sent  to  the  private  colleges  orinstitutions taking the benefit under our order  dated18^th September, 2014.  The Management quota shall alsobe  filled  through  the  State  list  and  the  feeschargeable  for  the  management  quota  shall  also  becharged at the same levels and rates as applicable toState quota list."

Moreover, the Court also said, "Our  order  shall  also  apply  to  all  similarlysituated institutions irrespective of the fact whetherany petitions were or are pending in this Court or inany  of  the  High  Courts  or  even  if  they  had  notapproached  any  court  at  all.   This  order  shall  also apply even in cases where there were orders of stay in favour of the Medical Council of India restraining the colleges  from  admitting  students  for  the  current academic session.

However, making exclusions, the Court said, "The  order  shall  not  apply  to  colleges  or institutions  which  have  been  disqualified  by  the Medical Council of India and/or the Central Government and have been prohibited from making any admissions for the current academic year 2014-15."

Medical education in India is a much-litigated subject, more can be read here:

SC issues Guidelines for admission to Medical Colleges.