Page 66 - EW July 2022

by legislation, private college man- Medical education best states
agements are obliged to surrender (MBBS seats per 100,000 population)
40-50 percent capacity to govern-
ment selected students, and provide
them education at government pre-
scribed tuition fees. For instance in
8.3
Karnataka, the state government has Jammu Kashmir
imposed a complicated three-tier
tuition fees structure upon private 12.3
medical colleges under which 40 per- 4.7 Himachal
7.3
cent of students who top NEET pay a Punjab Uttarakhand
3.2
5.9
mere Rs.1.41 lakh per year; the next Haryana 7.2 Arunachal
7.6
45 percent pay Rs.9.9-20 lakh and 15 Delhi Sikkim
percent admitted under the NRI quota 5.2 3.1 2.9 0
pay Rs.45 lakh per annum. Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh Bihar Meghalaya Assam Nagaland
1.7
1.5
7.3
N OW NMC HAS mandated Gujarat Madhya Pradesh Jhark.d Bengal Tripura Mizoram
Manipur
2.0
8.9
8.1
4.0
4.2
that private deemed uni-
5.4
versities providing medi-
4.6
4.2
cal education, which were C'garh Odisha
24.4
7.3
hitherto exempt from this arrange- DNHDD Maharashtra
ment, are also obliged to reserve 50
13.6
percent of capacity for state govern- Telangana National average
ments at government prescribed fees. 6.1:100,000
In effect, this order nullifies the Su- 11.3 9.7
13.8
preme Court’s historic 13-judge bench Goa Karnataka Andhra
judgement in the T.M.A. Pai Foun-
dation Case (2002), which permit-
108.2
ted privately promoted professional 10.3 Puducherry 24.0
(medical, engineering) colleges to 11.5 Tamil Nadu Andaman & Nicobar
0
prescribe their own admission proce- Lakshadweep Kerala
dures (subject to their being transpar-
ent and merit-based), and levy “rea-
sonable” tuition fees. Source: statsofindia.in by @PratapVardhan & National Medical Commission
However, subsequently in the Is-
lamic Academy Case (2003), a five- and upgrade infrastructure facilities, ing evidence regarding cash-for-seat
judge bench of the apex court whittled pay faculty salaries (which range be- malpractices for admission to MBBS,
down the court’s earlier verdict, al- tween Rs.2-3 lakh per month) and BDS and PG seats in the form of note-
lowing state governments to establish maintain mandatory teaching hospi- books, handwritten diaries, excel
admission and fees committees to tals, managements of private medical sheets containing the details of cash
supervise whether admission proce- colleges have been driven to demand- received from students/brokers for
dures of private professional colleges ing capitation/donation fees (repeat- admission in these colleges for various
are transparent and tuition fees rea- edly banned by the Supreme Court) years,” says a statement by the Central
sonable. This prompted private pro- from students admitted under the Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) of Feb-
fessional (including medical) college management/NRI quota. In Febru- ruary 18, 2021.
managements to buy peace by vol- ary 2021, the income tax department On May 19, 2022, the Supreme
untarily surrendering 40-50 percent raided several medical colleges across Court again directed government to
of their seats to state governments at Karnataka and reportedly seized un- act against medical colleges levying
government mandated tuition fees. accounted cash of Rs.400 crore alleg- capitation fees and issued directions
The inevitable consequence of edly collected as donations. to set up an online public portal under
private college managements being “Forced donations are collected its aegis where students can report/
forced to allocate 40-50 percent of through a network of agents employed post any information about private
capacity at less than 10 percent of by trustees and promoters of private medical colleges demanding capita-
the actual cost of medical education, medical colleges. The search opera- tion fees. The apex court seems obliv-
is capitation fees. Unable to provide tion resulted in detecting incriminat- ious that tuition fees regulation and

JULY 2022 EDUCATIONWORLD 65