Kerala High Court okays Rs 5 lakh fee for self-financing medical admission

Kochi: Kerala High Court has permitted the state government to proceed with the admissions to the self-financing medical colleges on an annual fee of Rs 5 lakh fixed by the Justice R. Rajendrababu Committee. A Division Bench ordered that all the students should pay fees by way of demand draft in the name of the Commissioners for Entrance Examinations.

With the Kerala High Court on Wednesday upholding the Rs 5 lakh fee for 85 per cent private college MBBS seats fixed by the Admission Supervisory and Fee Regulatory Committee headed by Justice R. Rajendra Babu, students below poverty line and the middle class have suffered a setback as the court has also ruled that the last year’s fee structure should not be enforced further.

On the other hand the state government is yet to clarify how it is going to serve the BPL students by way of scholarships using the Rs 5 lakh from the NRI fees.

The Rajendra Babu Committee decided this while hiking the NRI seat fee from last year’s Rs 15 lakh to Rs 20 lakh this year for each seat in 15 per cent NRI quota. However, even as the options were invited by the Commis-sioner of Entrance Examinations (CEE) on Tuesday from students for MBBS admission to both government and private medical colleges, there was no clarity on how many seats from the scholarship will be applicable so that BPL students can register their options with a firm understanding of the situation.

The middle class students have also been left in the lurch as only those who can afford yearly fee of Rs 5 lakh only will be able to take admission this year. Last year the fee for 20 MBBS seats out of 100 was Rs 25,000 for BPL students while in 30 seats this was Rs 2.50 lakh in private medical colleges which signed agreement with the government.

These 30 seats was the attraction for the middle class students. In the remaining 35 seats, the fee was Rs 11 lakh last year while in 15 per cent NRI seats, the fee was Rs 15 lakh.

However, the middle class have to be content with the Rs 5 lakh fee. Another significant development is that the last year’s Rs 11 lakh fee in 35 per cent seat has vanished which is replaced by Rs 5 lakh fee which is beneficial to the upper middle class section.

The High Court order has effected a paradigm shift in private medical college admission scenario this year.