TEJASWINI PATIL Vs. BANGALORE UNIVERSITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Whether the evil of collection of heavy capitation fee for giving admission to the private medical colleges in the State by them, is really abolished as intended by the Karnataka Educational Institutions (Prohibition of Capitation Fee) Act 1984, ('the Act' for short), or the evil is aggravated on account of the manner in which the Act is implemented by the State Government, in that, while the collection of heavy capitation fee continues unabated as alleged, heavy burden by way of tuition fees added by an order of the State Government issued under Section 5 of the Act? Is the main question of great public importance, which arises for our consideration in these two writ petitions presented by the petitioners who complain that they were denied admission to the private medical colleges concerned, though they had secured higher percentage of marks in the qualifying examination, whereas large number of students who had secured lesser marks than them, have been admitted into the respondent-medical colleges. I.2. The gist of the pleadings in Writ Petition No.16601 of 1990, is as follows:

(2.) to which college also the petitioner had applied and he also contacted the Vice-President of the Committee and the father of the petitioner was told that at least Rs. 3 lakhs should be paid for admitting the petitioner to the 1 year MBBS course of that college. As the petitioner was unable to pay such huge amount, the petitioner was not given a seat. The father of the petitioner in the circumstances addressed a letter to the Vice-Chancellor of the Bangalore University complaining about the collection to the tune of Rs. 5 to 10 lakhs for giving a seat in the private medical colleges. Copy of the letter addressed is produced as Annexure-B. The father of the petitioner also addressed a representation in detail complaining about collection of huge amount for giving seats in private medical and engineering colleges in the State, to the Chancellor of the Universities in the State. Copy of the letter is produced as Annexure-C. After making the general allegations regarding the practice of collection of heavy capitation fee for giving seats in private medical colleges, it was stated in particular, relating to the demand of capitation fee for giving a seat to the petitioner. (ii) The petitioner has stated that reference to this evil had figured on the floor of the State Legislature also and the Speaker himself had stated on 12-06-1990 on the floor of the Legislature that the private medical colleges in the State were extracting money in the name of education. The petitioner has also alleged that the Members of the State Legislature had criticised the Government in the Legislative Assembly on 13-06-1990 for the failure on the part of the Government to abolish the capitation fee in medical colleges. The petitioner has also produced an article published on 29-07-1990 issue of 'Deccan Herald' under the head 'Capitation boom', according to which even according to the official estimates, the private colleges in the State were collecting Rs. 70 to Rs. 80 crores every year in the form of donations and fees. (iii) Apart from the capitation fee, which the management are collecting unauthorisedly, the State Government itself has fixed the tuition fee in respect of management seats in private medical colleges at Rs. 25,000.00 per annum for Karnataka students, Rs. 60,000.00 per annum for non-Karnataka students and Rs. 80,000.00 per annum for foreigners, though according to the Regulations of the University and the conditions of affiliation, the fees prescribed in affiliated colleges should not be twice the standard fees fixed for the course by the University. The standard fees prescribed in Government colleges and for government seats in private colleges is Rs. 2,000.00 per annum, whereas the tuition fees fixed for management seats was 121/2 times more even in respect of Karnataka students as the fee fixed is Rs. 25,000.00 per annum and it is 30 times for citizens who are non-Karnataka as the fee fixed was Rs. 60,000.00 and for foreign students it was 40 times the fee fixed in Government colleges and government seats in private colleges. (iv) The petitioner has pleaded that the colleges having been affiliated to the Bangalore University, are instrumentalities of the State and therefore 'State' as defined in Art.12 of the Constitution of India and therefore bound by Art.14 of the Constitution and therefore selection for admission in these colleges had to be made strictly according to merit. In the alternative, the plea of the petitioner is, even assuming that the private medical colleges and their managements are not 'State' as defined in Art.12 of the Constitution, they are discharging public duties, which are regulated by the Act and the Universities Act, and particularly as the Act prohibits the collection of capitation fee, the private colleges are required to admit students to the colleges strictly according to merit as that is the only intent and purpose of the Act and as that is the only method by which the object and purpose of the Act, namely, prohibition of collection of capitation fee, could be ensured.

(3.) On the above allegations, inter alia, the petitioner has sought for the following reliefs "xxx xxx xxx