NMC's guideline for fees of 50% seats in private medical colleges challenged in Madras HC

Writ petitions are filed in Madras HC challenging an office memorandum issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC) regarding fees of 50% seats in private medical colleges and deemed universities to be at par with GMCs fees in that particular state & UT.

The National Medical Commission (NMC) had issued an office memorandum on February 3 that stated that the fees of 50% seats of the private medical college and deemed universities should be at par with the fees of the government medical colleges in that particular state & UT. Now, a host of deemed to be universities and self-financing medical colleges in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have approached Madras High Court challenging this memorandum.

Senior counsels Vijay Narayan, PS Raman and AR.L. Sundaresan are representing the educational institutions. After these counsels highlighted the urgency involved in the matter, Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala agreed for hearing the batch of writ petitions on August 8, 2022, as reported by The Hindu.

Government-appointed committees for the fixation of fees of private professional colleges in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry are expected to begin their work soon.

The colleges which approached the high court are - Melmaruvathur Adhiparasakthi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences and Education Promotion Society for India, Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Medical College and Hospital, PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Swamy Vivekanandha Medical College Hospital and Research Institute.

Education institutes seek an order for quashing NMC's memorandum

These colleges have challenged the Constitutional validity of Section 10 (1)(i) of the National Medical Commission Act of 2019 under which the office memorandum had been issued and also sought a consequential order quashing the memorandum. 

Senior counsel Vijay Narayan has said in the court that government medical colleges' fees are highly subsidized, and it would not be possible for private colleges to charge the same quantum of fees for 50% of their seats.

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