KOCHI: The Kerala High Court by ordering a fee of Rs 5 lakh and a bond of Rs 6 lakh in 85 per cent seats in self-financing medical colleges in the state, has lobbed the ball into the court of the Admission Supervisory and Fee Regulatory Committee headed by Justice R. Rajendra Babu to settle the issue, but students remain a worried lot. The state government whose Law and Health Secretaries are also members of the committee, will also have a say in taking the decision. The state government is learnt to have now nominated vastly experienced former commissioner of entrance examinations B.S. Mavoji also into the committee.
The Rajendra Babu Committee’s task as cut out by the High Court would be to summon all the accounts from the medical colleges at the earliest and assess them and fix a reasonable fee in each seat. It is learnt that the maximum fee is stipulated at Rs 11 lakh and the fee could be any lesser amount arrived at by the committee as well. At the time of taking admission, students will have to give Rs 5 lakh as fee and execute a bond saying that they will be ready to pay an additional fee of Rs 6 lakh if needed.
The disadvantage of this ‘solution’ is that students with an ability to pay Rs 11 lakh as fee would only dare to take the admission. Now only the state government is in a position to offer students any solution, but considering its recent inept handling of the issue, there is limited hope. It can explore utilising the expertise of Mr Mavoji or former Admission Supervisory Committee chairman Justice J.M. James to thrash out a solution at this moment. It can also approach the Supreme Court. The provisional fixing of the fee at Rs 11 lakh by the SC for two colleges, KMCT and Sree Narayana, is cited as paving the way for Tuesday’s judgement by the High Court. Students will have another round of counselling also.
