Refund ‘excess’ fees, says admission overseeing panel

List of medical, dental colleges that overcharged available on KEA website

In a recommendation that is likely to benefit hundreds of students who have obtained seats in private medical and dental colleges, the admission overseeing committee has said that colleges which charged “excess fees” over and above the prescribed amount have to refund students.

The recommendation made by chairman of the committee Anand Byrareddy, retired High Court judge, on Wednesday states that college managements should refund the excess amount with 18% interest per year within 30 days of the order being issued.

The Department of Medical Education will, however, have to take a final call on this matter and issue a direction to the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences. The committee has recommended rigorous penalty on colleges if they fail to act within the stipulated time.

Excess fees include the amount that students were forced to pay over and above the fees given to the Karnataka Examinations Authority during the time of counselling, and the prescribed mess, hostel and university fees. The committee has identified 15 medical colleges that overcharged for government-quota seats and 13 colleges that overcharged for the NRI and management quota seats. The names of the colleges have been uploaded on the KEA website.

The maximum “excess” fees for government-quota seats is ₹88,445 charged by a Sullia-based college. Under the NRI and management quota category, the maximum “excess” fees runs up to ₹1.91 lakh, charged by a Davangere medical college. As many as 14 colleges have not yet submitted details of the fee charged. The committee in its report has pointed out that 18 dental colleges charged excess fees for government-quota seats and 15 colleges for management seats. The maximum excess fee — ₹65,105 — was charged by two Davangere dental colleges for government-quota and management seats.

Under the NRI quota category, 16 dental colleges have overcharged students, and the maximum excess fees — ₹2.36 lakh — has been charged by a Bengaluru-based college. The committee has also pointed out that 18 dental colleges have not submitted details of the fees charged.