Jurisdiction of state fee regulator over autonomous colleges upheld in SC

MUMBAI: In a setback for private professionalautonomous colleges, the Supreme Court upheld the jurisdiction of the state Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) over them.

The Supreme Court recently dismissed the special leave petition filed by K J Somaiya College of Engineering that challenged a Bombay high court order bringing autonomous colleges under the purview of FRA.

A division bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Uday Lalit dismissed the petition stating that they “found no reason to entertain the petition”. Somaiya College was one of the first to challenge the FRA jurisdiction in the high court last year. LN Welingkar Institute of Management and Sardar Patel Institute of Technology (SPIT) followed suit.

On January 25, the high court rejected their contention and ruled that the fees proposed by autonomous colleges for every academic year would be subject to FRA regulation under the Maharashtra Private Unaided Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fees) Act, of 2015.

The colleges had contended that if the law is applied to them, it would snatch their financial autonomy and affect academic excellence.

The fee regulator, established under the 2015 act, is a quasi-judicial body that regulates fees of private and unaided professional institutions. It is currently headed by Justice M N Gilani, a retired Bombay high court judge. An FRA official said that it would regulate the fee structure of not only the upcoming academic session but also of 2017-18 retrospectively if it was not done last year.

After the high court order, Welingkar and SPIT submitted their fee proposals to the FRA, but Somaiya College refused to do so as it had challenged the court order.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/jurisdiction-of-state-fee-regulator-over-autonomous-colleges-upheld-in-sc/articleshow/63421475.cms