SC refuses to stay Kerala HC order barring govt to remit fee from NRI students to BPL corpus for MBBS education

The apex court has served notices to the Kerala government, KMCT medical college principal, and other concerned respondents. The court has been adjourned till the next hearing which has been listed on 8th February 2021.

According to recent media accounts, this came after the Fee Regulatory Commission fixed the fee for medical courses in self-financing colleges of Kerala. The commission decided that rupees 20 lakh will be fixed as an annual fee for students pursuing MBBS courses under the NRI quota in the state. The state government also added that from this amount 5 lacs will be transferred to the state government's corpus fund so that the government can provide financial help to students belonging from below the poverty line. This will ensure that they can also obtain admission to private medical colleges.

Following this, the college authorities approached the Kerala High Court seeking the court's direction to put a stay on the government order. Some of the students who sought admission under the NRI quota also appealed to the high court stating that the fee determined for NRI students are excessive. The medical institutions, on the other hand, alleged that the fee has been fixed arbitrarily and the authorities did not pay any heed to the actual costs which the medical colleges have to bear.

As per Indialegallive, the Kerala High court observed that the Fee Regulatory Committee fixed the fee under the NRI quota seats in order to form a Corpus fund that can provide scholarship and financial assistance to students under the BPL category. The institutions claimed that the excess amount should be returned to them while the medicos demanded that the amount which was supposed to be collected by the government should be returned to them as a refund. However, Kerala High Court put a stay on the government's order after which the government approached the apex court to quash the court's order. 

Kerala High Court ordered that the amounts collected from each NRI student to form the fund shall be transferred to the respective institutions where such NRI category students have been admitted and maintained as a separate account to be utilized only for the benefit of students belonging to the economically weaker sections of society who may be admitted to such institutions on the basis of allotment. Moreover, it will onto the State of Kerala to promulgate suitable legislative measures to achieve the laudable object of providing scholarships to students belonging to economically weaker sections. Till such time as suitable legislative measures are adopted by the State of Kerala, no further amounts shall be levied or collected from NRI students already admitted or to be admitted to NRI quota seats in this academic year, reports Indialegallive.

After this, the state government sought the direction of the apex court. Mathrubhumi reports that the senior lawyer Jaydeep Gupta, appearing for the state government and the standing counsel G Prakash submitted that the high court's judgment can jeopardize the future of the medical students heralding from below the poverty line. Mentioning Inamdar case's (2005) verdict the counsel for the petitioner stated that money can be collected from students under the NRI quota in order to provide financial assistance for the educational purpose of poor students.

According to the daily, VK Vishwanath and Harris Beeran, the counsel for KMCT Medical College stated that Kerala already has the lowest fees for students seeking admission under merit as well as under NRI quota in private medical colleges. The counsel for the college also requested the Supreme Court to allow the colleges to collect 20 lakh from NRI quota students and to issue an order directing the state government to repay the fees which has already been collected by them from the NRI medicos. 

Attached is the order