The Madras High Court has directed the government to form a committee in three months to fix fee for self-financing arts and science colleges.
Justice V. Ramasubramanian passed the order on a writ petition by the Periyar University-Affiliated Self-Financing Arts and Science Colleges Management Confederation, represented by its vice-president S. Palaniyandi.
The petitioner said that since there was no panel to fix the fee, the confederation members were prejudiced. It all started with one of the member colleges receiving legal notice on the collection of tuition fee from SC/ST students. A perusal of the website of the Directorate of Collegiate Education showed that the government had unilaterally fixed a low fee structure without consulting the self-financing institutions.
Additional Government Pleader P. Sanjai Gandhi said the government would need six months to constitute the committee.
Disposing of the petition, the judge directed the authorities to constitute the panel in three months.