BREAKING| Madras High Court Directs NMC To Reconsider Direction For Govt Fee Rate In 50% Private Medical College Seats

The bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala passed the orders on a plea by Private Medical Colleges challenging the directions of the National Medical Commission fixing fees equivalent to that charged by the Government in 50% of the seats in the private institutions. The direction was issued in the Office Memorandum of NMC notified on February 3, 2022.

The petitioners had also challenged the validity of Section 10 of the National Medical Commission Act 2019 which gave power to the commission to frame guidelines for the determination of fees in respect of 50% seats in private medical institutions. As per the Office Memorandum passed by the NMC pursuant to the powers under Section 10, the fee of the 50% seats in the private medical colleges and deemed Universities should be in part with the fee in the Government medical colleges of that particular State & UT. These benefits would first be made applicable to those candidates who have availed Government quota seats and where these seats were less than 50%, the remaining candidates could avail of this benefit purely on merit.

The petitioners challenged the validity of the act on the ground that the same was violative of Article 19(1) (g) of the Constitution. It was also submitted that even if the Section was held to be valid, it only gave powers to "frame guidelines" for the determination of fee. Through the present memorandum, however, the NMC has in effect fixed the fees in the 50% of the seats.

The petitioners had also contended that it was impossible for the private institutions who were completely reliant upon the income through fees to charge the same fee as that by the Government which was heavily subsidized.

The State submitted that the NMC was within its power to fix the fees and stressed the need for Private Institutions to participate in the welfare mechanisms. The State relied on various precedents by the Supreme Court to buttress its argument that the State must regulate the fees charged by private institutions. It was also emphasized that the state must ensure that the fee should not be collected by private colleges with a profit motive.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court had issued notice on a batch of petitions challenging the NMC stipulation. Last week, the Kerala High Court had held that the NMC stipulation wil not apply in Private Medical Colleges and Deemed Universities in Kerala as the fees of such seats are fixed by a statutory committee.

(Story to be updated after judgment is uploaded)

Case Title: Melmaruvathur Adhiparasakthi Institute of Medical Sciences v. Union of India and others

Case No: WP No. 17966 of 2022