The Supreme Court is set to examine the validity of an Office Memorandum issued by the National Medical Commission on February 3, 2022 stipulating that 50% of the seats in the Private Medical colleges should be at par with the fee in the Government Medical Colleges of a particular state.
The Association of Health Sciences Institute has lodged a writ petition in the apex court challenging the NMC’s decision. The top court bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan have also allowed the transfer petitions filed by the NMC seeking the transfer of all similar matters to the Supreme Court.
The AHSI in its petition has assailed the impugned Office Memorandum, stating the same is not only ultra-vires the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, but it is also without jurisdiction, unconstitutional, and an attempt to overrule the judgments of the Top Court.
The petition added that the Supreme Court by its several rulings, has clearly formulated the method for fixation of fees, considering various guidelines such as facilities available in the college, infrastructure, plans for expansion, age of investment made,etc. It further mentioned that the sole authority vested with powers to fix the fees of medical colleges fees is the Fee Fixation Committee in each state.
The petition underlined that each college is required to place before the Committee its fee proposal along with relevant books of accounts. It noted that the aforesaid committee has been conferred with the power to either approve or alter the fee structure proposed by the college and such fee shall be applicable for 3 years.
Additionally, the petitioner has asserted that NMC is not empowered to fix the fee and not allow the unaided private institutions to recover the fee fixed by Fee Committees from all the students in a uniform manner to recover its expenditure and also a reasonable profitfor its expansion.
Several high Courts were also seized with a similar matter. Reportedly, the impugned Office Memorandum has been stayed by Kerala High Court, Madhya Pradesh High Court and Madras High Court.