On Monday (02 November 2020), Supreme Court issued a notice on a special leave petition filed by Karuna Medical College challenging that the Kerala High Court judgment which set aside the fee that has been fixed by the fee regulatory commission for the MBBS courses in self-financing colleges in Kerala. The bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, while issuing the notice ordered that if the fee regulatory commission submits any report after the remand by the High Court, the same shouldn’t be implemented during the pendency of the case in the Supreme Court.

The judgment passed by the division bench of the High Court on 19 May 2020, was challenged by the SLP, setting aside the fee structure determined by the Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee for MBBS courses in self-financing medical colleges in the state for the academic years from 2017-17 onwards till 2019-2020.

Justices AM Shafique and TV Anilkumar remanded the matter to redetermine the fee structure after observing that the orders were passed by the committee without proper application of mind. The committee had fixed an Rs.5.85 lakh to Rs.7.19 lakh fee for MBBS courses in various self-financing colleges for the academy year 2019-20. The committee also affirmed its earlier fee structure at Rs.4.15 lakh per student for the 2016-17 academic year, Rs.4.80 lakh for 2017-18, and Rs.5.54 lakh for 2018-18 for the MBBS courses.

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