Fee reimbursement process for open category MBBS students is under process: State to Bombay HC

This comes after 19 MBBS students had approached the Court alleging that the colleges were now again pressurizing the students for payments and the amount had now accumulated to crores.

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported that with the constant pressure of medical colleges on certain Open Catagory medicos, they approached Bombay High Court for the court's direction and the court-ordered restraining the college authorities from forcibly recovering fee from those medicos belonging to the Open Category. Many of the medical institutes previously started forcing the open category students to pay the second-year charges in spite of the government resolution. All these students despite securing good marks had failed to get admission to Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) due to the implementation of Maratha and EWS quota.

Also Read: Relief: Bombay HC restrains Medical College of forcibly collecting fee from MBBS students

On November 30, 2019, the legislature had passed to a bill proposing reservation in education and government jobs for Maratha. Finally, 12% of seats for Maratha quota were reserved and 74% reservation was implemented in Maharashtra education field in total after the addition of 10% EWS quota. Considering the problem of the open category students in gaining admission in government colleges, the former Chief Minister Fadnavis suggested the students who belong to the open category and could not secure admission due to the reservation should seek admission in private colleges and said that the government will reimburse their current tuition fees.

Giving the GMCH the charge, the then Government supposedly allocated Rs 32 crore towards the reimbursement of fees. After getting the assurance from the Government, the students accordingly had paid the first year fees from their own pockets, reports TOI.

However, not receiving the reimbursement of fees as promised the medicos had approached the High Court. Taking cognizance of the issue, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court had provided an ultimatum to the Maharashtra government in November last year to immediately initiate the process of providing reimbursement fee to the open category MBBS students who were admitted into private colleges.

The Bombay High Court had instructed the government to immediately complete all the necessary formalities which are prerequisite for initiating the reimbursement process within 3 weeks.

Also Read: Start fee reimbursement process for open category MBBS students: Bombay HC gives ultimatum to State

As per the latest media report by the Times of India, since then nothing moved and not even a rupee had been paid, the counsel for the petitioners submitted.

On Tuesday, the GMCH associate professor informed the Court that the cabinet led by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had approved September 20, 2019, GR by issuing another one on October 9. The Medical Education and Drugs Department has to make financial provision for reimbursement, submitted the GMCH professor.

"For this, it is necessary to obtain permission from various departments-- Finance, Planning and accountant general (AG). A proposal has been accordingly moved by the department and is under process, which may take some time. After the cabinet approval to GR, candidates' objections have been invited. The scrutiny of objections received is under process by the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER)," he was quoted saying by TOI.

He further added that after issuing the orders, proposal was made for starting a new scheme for reimbursement to candidates. Now, after the Government seeking more time to process the fee reimbursement, the medical students need to wait more for their problems to be solved.