MBBS Aspirants move Bombay HC Challenging Exorbitant Deposit Money

Mumbai: Filing a plea before the Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court, thirteen medical aspirants from Maharashtra have questioned the caution or deposit money charged by the private medical colleges in the State and prayed to the Court to put a curb on it.

Most of the petitioners belong to various marginalised sections of the society. They claimed that they were unable to get admitted to MBBS courses at several private medical institutes as those colleges require the students to deposit large sums of money.

The colleges collect this amount at the time of admission under various heads such as hostel, mess, gymkhana, library, laboratory, etc. Even though the students get a full refund of this amount after the completion of the courses, it becomes a burden for the students to pay this amount along with the regular fee of the college at the time of admission to the MBBS course.

Caution or deposit money is collected by the medical colleges to make up for any loss or damage to college property at the hands of the students. The private medical colleges located in Maharashtra ask for anywhere between Rs 20,000 to Rs 5 lakh in refundable payment. Most of the colleges charge around Rs 2-3 lakh, adds the FPJ.

Also Read: Fee structure of 50 per cent seats in private medical institutions will now be at par with govt institutions : NMC

As per the latest media report by the Free Press Journal, in their plea, the medical aspirants have stated, "Due to heavy deposits and caution money charged, [students] have not selected 12-13 Private colleges. This resulted in higher cut-off in colleges not charging deposits and lower cut-off in colleges charging deposits. The petitioners are not allotted any seat in the first and second rounds."

The petitioner students have also argued that these fees violated the provisions of Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fees) Act, 2015, which stipulates that private unaided professional colleges can't charge anything other than the fees decided by the Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) of the Maharashtra Government.

Further, the aspirants referred to the Office Memorandum issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC) last year. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that last year issuing guidelines for the determination of fees and all other charges in respect of 50 percent of the MBBS and PG medical seats in private medical institutions and deemed to be universities, governed under the NMC Act, 2019, NMC had released a comprehensive set of principles for the fee regulatory authorities to follow and subsequently private medical institutes.

In its guidelines, NMC had directed the institutions to not charge capitation fees at all costs while following the 'not for profit' agenda for the impartation of medical education.

Further, in the directive, NMC had also said that the interest amount earned by the college on the deposit money should be taken into account while calculating the expenses of the institute. 

For the determination of fees for MBBS/ PG courses, it needs to be ensured that the principle of education being "not-for-profit", is strictly adhered to. Therefore, it is necessary that whereas all the operating costs and other expenses for running and maintenance of the institution for imparting medical education on a sustainable basis are covered in the fees, no excessive expense and exorbitant profit component should be allowed to be added to the fees, NMC had earlier directed.

Referring to this, the petitioner students requested the Court to declare the existing deposit charges as illegal and to have a ceiling limit on deposit and caution money.

Also Read: NMC spells out criteria for fixing MBBS, PG medical fees at private medical college and deemed universities, Details