The Supreme Court in an interim order has fixed a fee of Rs 11 lakh for admission to MBBS courses in Kerala’s self-financing medical colleges. A bench of Justices S A Bobde and L Nageswara Rao said Rs 5 lakh must be paid at the time of admission while the rest will be given as bank guarantee. The court also gave students 15 days to furnish the bank guarantee.
The court said the interim structure will continue until the fee fixation committee headed by Justice (retired) Rajendra Babu decides the fees. The additional amount will be kept in separate bank account until the final verdict.
The court noted that it had arrived at the Rs 11 lakh figure as the fee for last year was Rs 10 lakh.
Appearing for the Centre, Attorney General K K Venugopal contended that 50 per cent of the students admitted in these colleges belonged to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and will find it difficult to furnish bank guarantees of Rs 6 lakh. He added that the bank guarantee was no relief for poor students.
The AG told the court that the Justice Rajendra Babu committee will come out with the fee details by October 15 and requested the court to adjourn the matter till then, but the bench declined the plea.
