Rs 27 lakh for a medical seat? There’s no way the trust which runs the Maharashtra private medical college can justify this ‘‘price’’ but one thing is clear: in the absence of proper regulation, the Supreme Court’s radical pro-reform judgment has led to anarchy, especially in private medical colleges across the country. This is the first academic year that admissions to private medical and engineering colleges are to take place under a judgment delivered eight months ago by an 11-judge bench of the Supreme Court—the largest bench in 30 years—in a case called T M A Pai Foundation and others vs State of Karnataka and others. The old regime, not only overthrown but declared to be ‘‘unconstitutional,’’ was another Supreme Court judgment, in Unni Krishnan and others vs State of Andhra Pradesh and others, which held the field for 10 years. That was a socialist dispensation which forced private medical colleges to fill 85 per cent of the seats at Government-fixed fees through the combined entrance test (CET) route. The T M A Pai judgment, on the other hand, liberated private medical colleges from governmental control in the critical matters of admissions and fees. It made clear that the CET was no more mandatory and it also dispensed with the existing categories of ‘‘free’’ and ‘‘payment’’ seats. But this radical shift in judicial policy has ended up creating a spate of fresh litigation in high courts and even the Supreme Court on account of some loosely worded stipulations made by the T M A Pai judgment. For example: • Even as it gave discretion to the private medical colleges ‘‘to admit students of their choice,’’ the judgment prescribed that their selection procedure should continue to be ‘‘merit-based.’’ • The judgment also gave discretion to each state, depending on ‘‘the local needs,’’ to fix quotas for itself and the management. • All these colleges must admit ‘‘a small percentage of students belonging to weaker sections of the society by granting them freeships or scholarships, if not granted by the Government.’’ • While the fees to be charged by the private medical colleges ‘‘cannot be regulated,’’ no institution should charge ‘‘capitation fee’’ or ‘‘indulge in profiteering.’’ All they are entitled to is ‘‘a reasonable revenue surplus.’’ Open-ended as they are, these conditions have lent themselves to diverse interpretations in the hands of various state Governments, leading to litigation which has held up admissions indefinitely. Some states have actually construed the judgment to mean that the private medical colleges will continue to be regulated by the government. Maharashtra, for instance, prescribed that the management quota will be limited as before to 15 per cent while the rest would be filled through CET. Further, in the name of checking capitation fee, Maharashtra set up a regulatory authority called the Medical Education and Regulatory Authority (MERA), which requires the colleges to get their fee structure cleared by it. But, on June 18, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court stayed the operation of the government regulation and ruled that the appointment of MERA violated the T M A Pai verdict. The state has moved a bigger bench in Mumbai to reconsider the decision. Andhra Pradesh also interpreted the apex court judgment to mean that the management quota will remain at 15 per cent. The high court there upheld the state government’s contention that no private college can claim any right to conduct its own entrance test. But, like in Maharashtra, the high court in Hyderabad said that the Government cannot anymore regulate the fee structure and that it had to be the same for all students, whether admitted through CET or in the management quota. Other states have been more generous to the management by giving it a larger quota than before. While Gujarat marginally increased it to 20 per cent, Tamil Nadu gave a bonanza of 40 per cent and Kerala went further by giving 50 per cent to the management. But, even then, the private colleges challenged the government decision in every state. In Kerala, the high court ruled that the management quota should be enhanced to 75 per cent. The Supreme Court declined to stay the high court order on the state government’s petition. In the case of Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the state on June 27 as the private medical colleges objected to the stipulation that they observe reservations for backward classes even in the management quota.
