Tuition fees must be affordable, education is not business to earn profit, says Supreme Court
Tuition fees must be affordable, education is not business to earn profit, says Supreme Court
New Delhi: The Supreme Court observed that education is not the business to earn profit and tuition fees shall always be affordable as it noted that the Andhra Pradesh Government's decision to enhance fee to ₹ 24 lakhs per annum, which is seven times more than the fee fixed earlier is not justifiable at all. A bench of justices MR Shah and Sudhanshu Dhulia on Monday made these remarks while upholding Andhra Pradesh High Court's order which set aside the State Government's decision to enhance the tuition fee payable by the MBBS students.
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Andhra Pradesh government by its Government Order dated September 6, 2017, enhanced the tuition fee payable by MBBS students.
"We are of the opinion that the High Court has not committed any error in quashing and setting aside the Government Order dated September 6, 2017, enhancing the tuition fee for the block years 2017-2020," the court said.
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"To enhance the fee to ₹ 24 lakhs per annum i.e., seven times more than the fee fixed earlier was not justifiable at all. Education is not the business to earn profit. The tuition fee shall always be affordable," the court said.
The court observed that the determination of the fee/review of the fee shall be within the parameters of the fixation rules and shall have direct nexus with the factors mentioned in Rule 4 of the Rules, 2006, which include the location of the professional institution; the nature of the professional course; the cost of available infrastructure; the expenditure on administration and maintenance; a reasonable surplus required for growth and development of the professional Institution; the revenue foregone on account of waiver of the fee, if any, in respect of students belonging to the reserved category and other Economically Weaker Sections of the society.
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