‘If you are unable to pay, get scholarship’: SC rejects fee cut plea

THe sublime margaret court on wed refused to try a plea by a educatee seeking a reduction in the exorbitant fees charged by a private medical college despite gaining admission under the EWS category.The bench of justices BV Nagarathna and Joymala Bagchi said: “An individual can’t say that the fees in the private college should be at par with government colleges…we need doctors in the country. If you are unable to pay, get a scholarship or any subsidy scheme.”The court was hearing a plea filed by Harshvardhan Singh, a valid economically weaker section (EWS) certificate holder with annual family income below ₹8 lakh, who appeared for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (undergraduate) 2025 and secured 84.46 percentile. He stated that despite EWS vacancies, the Counselling Board allotted him a seat under the general category at a private medical college, which has a tuition fee of ₹18.9 lakh. However, his plea for a reduced fee or an amount comparable to government medical college was rejected by the Rajasthan High Court on May 5 — the decision under challenge in the top court.The bench said: “There is a vital difference between a government college and a private one. The latter are self financing institutions while government colleges are funded by the state.” Referring to its judgment in TMA Pai (2002) which banned private colleges from charging capitation fees, the bench said, “By our TMA Pai decision, capitation fees are banned, but that does not mean self-financing institutions cannot take their general college fees.”Advocate Rishabh Sancheti appearing for the petitioner informed the bench that the National Medical Commission (NMC) has issued an office memorandum which recommends that 50% of the seats in private medical colleges should be at par with the fee in government medical colleges. He stated that this was being followed in other states such as Maharashtra and West Bengal but not in Rajasthan. He further stated that the high court order mentioned that the NMC order is not mandatory but recommendatory.Sancheti added: “Across Rajasthan, private medical colleges are charging between ₹18 lakh to ₹25 lakh annually. It cannot be so high. This amounts to discrimination on two counts. Candidates who secured lower marks than the petitioner were allotted seats under the EWS category and second, the petitioner, though belonging to the EWS category, has been treated at par with the general category candidates for the purpose of fee payment, creating an unaffordable financial barrier to medical education.”The bench said, “Those who have will pay. The high court has passed an order. We see no ground to interfere with the same.”The high court had stated that there was no illegality in the fee charged by the private university as the same was approved by the Fee Regulatory Committee (FRC) of Rajasthan.The petitioner was allotted a seat at American International Institute of Medical Sciences, Udaipur in November 2025. Despite applying under the EWS category and the availability of EWS seats in other colleges, he alleged that he was arbitrarily allotted a seat under the general unreserved Boys (URB) category.He further alleged that when the NEET-UG 2025 stray vacancy round for MBBS, BDS, and B.Sc Nursing seats were announced, the private college illegally converted the unfilled EWS seats into general category seats and arbitrarily allotted them to unqualified candidates in the exam.