Govt to approach Kerala High Court against Justice JM James panel decision

KOCHI: The state government has decided to approach the Kerala High Court against the order of the Professional Admission Supervisory Committee headed by Justice J.M. James to allow the 35 percent management quota students of 2008 MBBS batch of the present Ernakulam Government Medical College to remit a fee of Rs 3 lakh per seat.

The state government had moved to levy a fee of Rs 4.35 lakh per seat. Till the admission of 2014 MBBS batch, the college was under the management of Co-operative Academy
of Professional Education (CAPE) and was a government-supported self-financing college known as Cochin Co-operative Medical College (CMC).

According to Justice J.M. James, he ordered to pay Rs 3 lakh following a High Court direction to it to fix the fee of these seats.

“Till 2008, the college was levying a fee of Rs 2.40 lakh per seat. When the private self-financing managements increased the fee to Rs 4.35 lakh by reaching an accord with the state government in this regard in 2008, the CMC also decided to increase the fee to Rs 4.35 lakh. The students approached the HC against this and the court ordered to freeze the decision. Later, the court asked the James committee to take a decision and the committee as a compromise formula fixed the fee at Rs 3 lakh,” Justice James told DC.

Medical college principal Dr Aswini Kumar told DC that if the college is forced to accept the fee of Rs 3 lakh, the government will lose Rs 2.09 crore in terms of fee.