Supreme Court: Private Medical Colleges Cannot Charge Extra Fees to BPL Students

New Delhi: In a landmark ruling that benefits economically disadvantaged medical students across India, the Supreme Court declared Friday that private medical institutions cannot charge students from below poverty line (BPL) families anything beyond the subsidized fee amount for MBBS courses.

The bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh issued this decision in a case from Kerala, but its implications extend nationwide, potentially helping thousands of underprivileged students pursuing medical education.

Justice Kant, who authored the judgment, stated, “BPL students admitted through scholarship schemes, both current and future enrollees, are not required to pay the full regular fees. They will continue to pay at the subsidized rate established by the State or Fee Regulatory Committee.”

The ruling further mandates that any excess fees already collected from these students must be refunded within three months or credited toward future academic years.

The Supreme Court upheld a Kerala High Court order that had invalidated a state notification requiring private colleges to deposit higher fees collected from NRI students with the government. Instead, the Court ruled that private institutions can retain these fees to create their own corpus funds specifically for subsidizing BPL students’ education.

The bench clarified that if Kerala wishes to establish a separate corpus fund to support students from economically weaker sections, it would need to enact appropriate legislation. The Court directed the state to return previously collected corpus fund fees to the respective colleges within three months.

Additionally, the ruling specified that NRI students are not entitled to refunds of amounts transferred to the state for corpus fund creation. These students must pay their full fees, as approved by the Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee, to their respective colleges within three months if they haven’t already done so.