Revisit decision on Govt fees for 50 percent Private Medical Colleges seats, issue Fresh OM if necessary: Madras HC tells NMC

Chennai: Amid all the ongoing litigations concerning the National Medical Commission's order regarding Government fees in 50 percent medical seats in the private medical colleges, the Madras High Court bench has directed the NMC to reconsider its decision in this regard.

Although the High Court bench comprising of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N. Mala has upheld the constitutional validity of Section 10 (1) (i) of the NMC Act 2019, under which the concerned office memorandum was issued, it expressed its concern over the possibility of several seats going vacant because of the high fees in the other 50 percent seats in the self-financed institutes.

Therefore, the HC bench directed the Apex medical body to reconsider the Office Memorandum and issue a fresh OM if required. Clarifying that the process of reconsideration must be completed at the earliest, the bench further directed to continue with the existing fee structure in the meantime.

Besides, the bench has also made it clear that the amendment to the current fee structure should be done in a manner so that the merit does not get affected. This comes after recently the Kerala High Court held that the NMC fee order would not be applicable in Kerala.

Medical Dialogues had last month reported that while considering the plea challenging the NMC fee order, the Madras High Court bench had reserved its order in the matter. Back then, the bench had also sought to know from the Commission how the system would work if the colleges failed to fill up the 50% seats for which the students have to pay a hefty amount.

The issue concerns the Office Memorandum issued by NMC back in February 2022. In that order, the Apex medical body had clarified that the fees of 50 per cent seats in the private medical colleges would be at par with government medical colleges of that particular State/UT.

"After extensive consultations, it has been decided that the fee of the 50 per cent seats in the private medical colleges and deemed universities should be at par with the fee in the government medical colleges of that particular State and UT. The benefit of this fee structure would be first made available to those candidates who have availed government quota seats, but are limited to the extent of 50 per cent of the total sanctioned strength of the respective medical college/deemed university," NMC had mentioned in the notification.

"However, if the government quota seats are less than 50 per cent of total sanctioned seats, the remaining candidates would avail the benefit of a fee equivalent to the government medical college fees, based purely on the merit," the Commission had added.

Also Read: Madras HC reserves order on plea challenging NMC Fee order

While such a move definitely brought relief to a section of medical aspirants who choose to leave India and move abroad for cheaper medical education, such a rule fails to take into consideration the plights of the private medical college managements who pay lakhs and crores of money to set up the infrastructure.

Therefore, upset with the NMC order, the management of private medical colleges had urged the Union Health Ministry to direct NMC for withdrawing the diktat. The Apex medical body, however, did not withdraw its decision and consequently, a host of private medical colleges and deemed to be universities recently approached the Madras HC seeking relief. Similar pleas have been made before other High Courts and the Supreme Court as well.

In their plea, apart from challenging the Office Memorandum issued by NMC, the private medical institutes had also questioned the validity of Section 10 of the National Medical Commission Act 2019, under which the Commission became empowered for framing the guidelines to determine the fees for the 50 percent private medical institutes' fees.

As per the latest media report by The Hindu, the bench upheld the constitutional validity of Section 10 (1)(i) of the National Medical Commission Act of 2019, which empowers the Commission for framing guidelines to determine the fees and all other charges in respect of 50% of total seats in private medical colleges and deemed to be universities governed under the provisions of the NMC Act.

However, regarding the NMC memorandum, the bench opined the Commission needs to revisit the memorandum since it does not address several issues including the possibility of several seats going vacant in the other 50% seats due to high fees. 

Live Law adds that clarifying that until the process of reconsideration is complete, the present fee structure shall continue, the bench further observed that the amendment to the structure should be done in such a way that the merit does not get affected.

Meanwhile, considering a similar plea the Kerala High Court recently held that NMC fee order directing the private institutes charging fees at par with the government medical colleges for the 50% of the total seats would not be applicable in Kerala.

The High Court bench comprising of Justice Devan Ramachandran expressed such an opinion as it took note of the fact that after the implementation of Kerala Medical Education (Regulation and Control of Admission to Private Medical Educational Institutions) Act, 2017 there is no longer 'Government Quota' and 'Management Quota' seats in the Private medical institutes.

Recently, the Association Of Health Sciences Institutes (AHSI) took up the matter before the Supreme Court and taking note of the same, the top court bench has issued notice to the NMC.

Also Read: Govt Fee for 50 percent MBBS seats in Private medical colleges, Universities: Supreme Court to decide