The High Court of Karnataka on Monday asked the State government whether it had issued proposal on fee structure for postgraduate medical courses, and whether a chairperson of the fee fixation committee for professional courses had been appointed.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Nataraj Rangaswamy issued the direction while hearing a PIL petition filed by Vinod G. Kulkarni of Late G.B. Kulkarni Memorial Trust, Hubballi.
Pointing out that the High Court had recommended the name of a retired judge for the post of chairperson, the Bench wanted to know whether the government had made appointment. Complaining that the government had carried out a steep hike in fees for PG medical courses acting on the requests of private medical colleges, the petitioner alleged that the fee hike was done in the absence of the committee, which is the authority to fix fees.
Seeking a direction to the government on not hiking the tuition fee structure, the petitioner said the annual fee of PG medical course should not be more than ₹5 lakh per annum for all students in private medical colleges, if possible.
