Providing education is not a business for profit - SC to Andhra Pradesh Government

Case: Narayana Medical College vs State of Andhra Pradesh
Bench: Justices MR Shah and MM Sundress

The Supreme Court upheld the Andhra Pradesh High Court's ruling that struck down the state government's decision to raise tuition fees for private unaided medical colleges to 24 lakh on Monday. The Supreme Court observed that providing education is not a business for profit.

It was ruled that the 2017 decision by the State to increase the fees to 24 lakh, which was seven times more than the fees fixed in 2011, was unjustifiable.

Therefore, the Court imposed costs of 2.5 lakh each on the State government and the appellant medical college for payment to NALSA and the Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee (MCPC).

In addition, the bench affirmed the High Court's directive for medical colleges to refund extra fees collected from students by the State under the Government Order (GO) issued in September 2017.

Whenever the Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (AFRC) fixes a tuition fee that is higher than the previous tuition fee, the medical colleges are always free to recover it from the students. This amount cannot, however, be retained by the respective medical colleges.

The judges said the fee determination or review must follow the fixation rules and have a direct connection to:
•    Institutions' location
•    nature of the course
•    infrastructure and maintenance cost
•    etc.

AFRC must consider all of these factors when reviewing tuition fees, the bench said.