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ShareAhmedabad: A division bench of Gujarat high court, comprising chief justice KS Radhakrishnan and justice AS Dave, has asked self-financed institutes (SFI) to collect fee as decided by Gujarat University (GU) on ad hoc basis. However, the bench has also directed that the management of the SFIs will have to state the difference between fees decided on ad hoc basis and the permanent one.
SFIs, such as the Gujarat Law Society, Chimanbhai Patel Institute and Som Lalit Institute and others approached Gujarat high court as GU settled on a fee structure lower than what the SFIs had demanded.Sudhir Nanavaty and Dhaval Dave, counsels on behalf of SFIs, submitted in the petition that the management of the SFIs had proposed higher fee structure forBCom, BBA and BCA as their administrative and establishment expenses had increased. The SFI had proposed Rs9,000, Rs17,000 and Rs25,000 per year for BCom, BBA and BCA.
However, on May 29 this year, GU introduced ad hoc fee structure till the final decision could be taken. As per the fee structure, the SFIs are authorised to collect a fee of Rs7,000 for BCom, Rs14,000 for BBA and Rs18,000 for BCA courses. The varsity redesigned the fee structure to Rs5,500, Rs10,000 and Rs15,000 respectively.
The move was protested, and the counsels argued that the SFIs could not afford to run on the fee structure introduced by GU. They demanded that the high court direct Gujarat University to increase the fee structure so that the SFIs could meet their expenses.
Talking about the high court's decision, GU Vice-Chancellor Parimal Trivedi said, "The newly elected members of the executive council of GU were not present, but I had written a letter to all the institutes, asking them to provide details of academic and financial audits of their institutes. We even agreed to give conditional permission to collect ad hoc fee in first academic term, but the SFIs did not file any details and sent only an assurance letter to the university."
"We also argued in the court that the SFIs have not given any details about their financial or academic status. On the basis of our argument, the court has asked SFIs to submit the details to the university."
Members of GU executive council, including Narhari Amin, Manish Doshi and Himanshu Patel, welcomed the court's decision and said that it will be a blessing for students and parents.
