Rs 25 lakh Medical fee for SS courses: HC stay on GO 78

Hyderabad: Bring relief to SS candidates in the state, the High Court for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh has ordered a stay on the implementation of Government Order No 78 issued by the Telangana government to enhance fee for PG Super Specialty medical courses in private unaided medical colleges.

The GO 78 issued by the Telangana Government states its consent to private minority and non-minority medical colleges for a fee hike up to 25 lakhs. The apparent reasoning for the hike comes at the request of private unaided minority and non-minority colleges in Telangana, to meet "increased cost involved in imparting quality education escalation in costs and increase in university-related fees.."

Read Also : Telangana: Super-Speciality courses fee hiked to as much as Rs 25 lakh, aspirants in shock

According to Hans India, it is being alleged that the Government of Telangana had deliberately abstained from uploading the impugned government order on its website with a mala fide intention of preventing the public from having an access and legal recourse against it.

Sama Sandeep Reddy, a Legal Counsel for the petitioner, an SS aspirant contended in court that the GO had been issued in a hurry after the Ist counseling round got over. Many students had already joined medical colleges based on the fee structure

The counsel also alleged that the impugned Government Order has been issued without the consent of the Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (T AFRC), The body is meant to fix and regulate fee for all medical institutions.

"Further, as per MCI, in non-governmental institutions, fifty percent of the total seats shall be filled by the competent authority and the remaining fifty per cent by the management of the institution on the basis of merit. During the first round of counselling, the total available seats in private medical colleges have not been classified into convener quota seats and management quota seats.

Exploiting the said situation, the private medical colleges are treating the entire Super-specialty seats as management quota seats and are accordingly collecting the tuition fee. In terms of G.O. Ms No. 78 issued on August 14, the hike in the annual tuition fee structure for the Private Medical Un-Aided Minority and Non-Minority Professional Institutions for the academic year 2018-19 was in the range of 233% to 327%," the court was told.

The court, responding to the plea instructed the council to issue notices to all the private medical colleges. Staying the order, the court has also granted 2 weeks time to the government and respondents to file their counter for a hearing on September 6.

The court's decision has been hailed by the HRDA(Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association) which has said that it would act as the much-needed relief sought by the students.

The doctors' forum felt it necessary that the MCC (Medical Counselling Committee) and KNR University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) differentiate and notify convener and management quota Super-specialty PG seats at the earliest in accordance with MCI Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations.