SC moves to stop capitation fee for medical college seats

NEW DELHI: In order to check the menace of charging capitation fee for medical admission, the Supreme Court has passed a slew of directions, including creating a webportal under its administration wherein any information about private medical colleges charging capitation fees can be furnished by the students and also barred the institutions from accepting payment of fees in cash.
A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai also strictly prohibited the private medical colleges from increasing fee on their own and said that college management cannot ask for additional amount over and above the price band fixed by the Fee Fixation Committee and any increase could be done only after approval of the panel.
The bench expressed deep concern that exorbitant capitation fee was still being charged in various colleges inspite of repeated directions issued by the apex court and also when there is a legislation in the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh to curb the menace. The court had earlier appointed senior advocate Salman Khurshid as amicus curiae to suggest additional measures to be put in place to root out the menace.
Accepting Khurshid’s recommendations, the court passed the order and directed that “a web-portal under the aegis of SC has to be set up wherein any information about the private medical colleges charging capitation fees can be furnished by the students. The web portal has to be maintained and regulated by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the ministry of electronics and information Technology”.
It directed the chief secretaries of the states and UTs to publish the details about the web portal in English and vernacular newspapers during admission time and a pamphlet should be compulsorily given to the students at the time of counselling informing them about the web portal.
“The management of private medical colleges are strictly prohibited from accepting payment of fees in cash, in order to avoid charging of capitation fee,” it said.
It directed that Fee Fixation Committees should take into account all the components of fee, leaving no scope for managements to charge any additional amounts apart from what has been prescribed by the committee.