Do not Charge MBBS Fees in Advance: FRA directs Nagpur's Medical College

Apart from this, the authority also asked the institute for publishing the fee payment schedule for the entire four-and-a-half-year duration of the course, as was requested by the complainant.

Under the 2015 Act, professional colleges cannot collect more than a year's fee in an academic year. Further, the Act specifies that the excess amount amount demanded by the college would be considered as a capitation fee, possibly inviting action against the institute.

Even though the college has not accepted or refuted the student's allegation in any of the records during the proceedings of the FRA hearing, the representative of the institute told the authority that the complainant had agreed to withdraw its grievance as there was a "miscommunication" and "misunderstanding".

The college claimed that the complainant had requested for disposing of the complaint. In fact, the complainant/student's father did not appear before the authority on the designated hearing date and he had also written an e-mail to FRA in March stating that he had decided to withdraw the complaint "considering the prospects and professional career" of his son. He mentioned that he decided not pursuing the matter as his identity had been revealed.

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