Blow to college barons: High court holds up merit, cracks down on fees

In a significant order, the Bombay High Court today lifted its earlier stay on admissions to professional courses in Maharashtra and ruled t...

In a significant order, the Bombay High Court today lifted its earlier stay on admissions to professional courses in Maharashtra and ruled that admissions to medical courses would be only through the state-conducted MH-CET while those for engineering would be through centralised admissions based on the merit list.

The judgement has dealt a severe blow to the education barons in Maharashtra who had strongly opposed any government regulations over their colleges.

Most of the 137 private engineering and 16 private medical colleges are run by politicians, some of whom are ministers in the Congress-led Democratic Front Government.

Story continues below this ad

The Bombay HC today ruled that merit should be the sole criteria for the admissions and there should not be exorbitant fees. Further, the management quota will be decided by a committee headed by a retired judge.

As the admissions began this year, the donations or capitation fee for the management quota seats had shot up to Rs 10 lakh for engineering and Rs 27 lakh for medical colleges, defying a ban on capitation fee in Maharashtra.

A week ago, a five-member bench of the Supreme Court ruled against charging capitation fees and made Central entrance tests compulsory for admissions.

Today’s high court judgement has paved the way for admissions to begin and also given the government a handle to do away with the corrupt practices in the management quota system.

Story continues below this ad

The government will also have to disband the Medical Education Regulatory Authority (MERA) and Educational Institutions’ Regulatory Authority (EIRA) created to check profiteering by private colleges.

‘Grave insult to wounded people’: Cong lashes out at PM Modi amid his first Manipur visit

India6 hr ago

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Manipur for the first time since ethnic violence hit the state in May 2023, the Congress on Saturday called it a “farce, tokenism, and a grave insult to a wounded people”.

View all shorts

Live Blog