Karnataka high court issues notice to fee regulatory committee

The high court has issued a notice to the Fee Regulatory Committee in a petition seeking release of the Justice Padmaraj commission report on fee structure.

The petition, filed by the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association, came up for hearing before the vacation bench on Thursday.

The petitioner had contended that the state government had constituted a fee regulatory committee to address the issues of inadequate funding. The committee was constituted on July 5, 2010. The committee had called the private engineering colleges to submit the fee proposal for the academic year 2011-12.  The petitioners submitted that the regulatory committee should issue a copy of the commission’s report or recommendation or determination of fees.

The petitioners further asked to direct the state to permit them to levy uniform fees on all the candidates as may be fixed under the regulatory committee and further restrain the government from imposing differential fee structure in enforcing the unreasonable terms of consensual agreement.

RL Jalappa, the owner of an engineering college, had on April 19 filed a writ petition in the high court, asking the state government to release the justice B Padmaraj commission report on fee structure. The petition filed by the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineers Colleges Association will be tagged with the one filed
by Jalappa and will be heard together.