The Supreme Court upheld the Andhra Pradesh High Court's decision to overturn the State government's decision to raise the annual tuition fees for MBBS courses in private unaided medical colleges to 24 lakh. The division bench of Justices MR Shah and MM Sundresh held:

"To enhance the fee to Rs. 24 lakhs per annum, i.e., seven times more than the fee fixed earlier, was not justifiable at all."

“The business of education is not to earn profit. The tuition fee will always be affordable. Determination of fee/review of fee shall be within the parameters of the fixation rules and shall have direct nexus with the factors mentioned in Rule 4 of the Rules, 2006."

The Court stated that fee determination or review shall be within the parameters of the fixation rules and shall have a direct relationship to:

• Location of the professional institution
• Nature of the professional course
• cost of available infrastructure
• Expenditure on administration and maintenance
• A reasonable surplus is required for the growth and development of the institution.

The bench also upheld the High Court's directives to medical colleges to refund the additional fees collected from students under the Government Order (GO) issued in September 2017, by which the state raised the fees.

"The colleges cannot be permitted to retain the amount recovered pursuant to the illegal GO. The medical colleges are the beneficiaries of this illegal GO, which is rightly set aside by the High Court. The respective medical colleges have used or utilized the amount recovered under GO for a number years and kept with them for a number of years on the other hand students paid the exorbitant tuition fee after obtaining loan from the financial institutions and banks and paid the higher rate of interest," 

As a result, the Court imposed costs of Rs. 2.5 lakh each on the State government and the appellant medical college, to be paid to the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) and the Supreme Court's Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee (MCPC).

Case title: Narayana Medical College vs. State of Andhra Pradesh

Civil Appeal No. 8185-86/2022

Read the Complete judgment on the following link:-

https://main.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2019/39681/39681_2019_6_1501_39492_Judgement_07-Nov-2022.pdf