GFSU should approach govt for fixing fees: Gujarat High Court

In a major blow to Gujarat Forensic Sciences University (GFSU), the Gujarat High Court has set aside the two separate government resolutions by which the varsity was exempted from the purview of the Gujarat Professional Technical Education Colleges or Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fees) Act, 2007. This essentially means that the tuition fees of various courses offered by the varsity and decided by its administration is illegal, and GFSU does not have the power to fix tuition fees of the courses offered by it.

The verdict came from the division bench of Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice AC Rao in two separate petitions filed by two M Tech (Cyber Security) students, who enrolled in th two-year case in 2016 and passed from varsity in 2018. The court directed the varsity to approach the state government for the purpose of approval of fee structure for the academic years 2016-17 and 2017-18 for course of M Tech (Cyber Security). The bench directed the government to decide the same expeditiously and process the same within eight weeks.

As per the case details, the petitioner had challenged the notifications issued by the state government on October 4, 2017, and May 11, 2018, by which the varsity was exempted from the purview of the Fee Regulatory Committee and the Admission Committee for Professional Courses.

It was the petitioner's contention that varsity cannot charge hefty fees from students for professional courses despite being provided with funds by state government. The petitioner had also requested the high court to direct the state government to fix fee structure of the courses offered by GFSU.