Notice to DUs over excess fee for medical seats

The First Bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar before whom the plea from Jawaharlal Shanmugam came up, included all 10 Deemed Universities in the state and issued notice to them for filing response by July 17.

Alleging that profiteering has become the sole objective of these DUs in running medical colleges in total contravention of the Apex court orders, the petitioner submitted that the tuition fee ought to be calcu-lated taking into account the entire income of the medical college and its teaching hospital into consideration and not just their expenses alone.  

Stating that there is concealment and falsification of finances with the sole intention of amassing wealth through black and white money generation, the petitioner said the IT department is aware of this and the expenses revealed by the DUs fail to reflect the true picture. 

Also, referring to the institutions run under Charitable Trust, the petitioner alleged that so called DU’s enjoy great privileges in running their institutions. “The exorbitant tuition fees charged per annum go against the very principle and objective of running charitable trusts. Giving a posh and a sophisticated atmosphere inside the campus cannot be the criteria to fix exorbitant tuition fees. Even such atmosphere is created only to cater to the needs of affluent students,” Jawaharlal 

Shanmugam said. 

The exorbitant tuition fees running to several lakhs of rupees charged by the private medical colleges and DUs are beyond the reach of any common meritorious candidate. The real merit based admission even through NEET would have no meaning. The very objective of NEET based merit admission is itself getting defeated in the context. 

The DUs managed by highly influential people with enormous political clout perpetrate corrupt activities resulting in the meritorious failing to get a medical seat, the petitioner said. 

The Madras High Court has quashed an advertisement issued by the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) calling for applications for filling up over 1000 Post of Lecturers (Engineering) in Government Polytechnic Colleges.

Justice S M Subramaniam before whom the petition filed by three aspiring candidates including P Sellamuthu of Salem came up on Wednesday while quashing the advertisement also directed the Board to issue a fresh notification as per the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) norms. The petitioners had contended that as per AICTE norms, the eligibility for lecturer’s post in Government Polytechnics is a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering/ Technology in the relevant branch with first class or equivalent. If the candidate has a Master’s degree in Engineering/ Technology, first class or equivalent is required either at the Bachelor’s or Master’s level. But TRB in its advertisement issued on June 16, 2017 had confined the criteria to merely “A Firstclass Bachelor’s degree in the branch of Engineering relating to the post concerned” totally ignoring master’s degree. Stating that if the AICTE norms are followed they who are Engineering Post Graduates with first class would be eligible to apply.

As trouble mounted in Puducherry over the nomination of three MLAs by Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi, the Madras High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Ministry of Home Affairs as well as the three persons appointed as MLAs on a plea seeking to quash the latter’s appointment.

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar on recording that the prayer has been amended, ordered notice to the impleading respondents. The case has been posted for further hearing to July 23. 

The earlier plea had sought for a direction to forbear the Centre from in any manner filling the nominated seats of the members for the Puducherry Legislative Assembly without the consultation and choice of the elected Government of Puducherry. But with the appointments being made and the Governor herself administering the oath to the three nominated members, V Saminathan, K G Shankar and S Selvaganabathy, the prayer was altered seeking to quash the impugned notification issued on June 23 appointing them and direct the Centre to nominate the members only with the consultation and choice of the elected council of ministers. 

K Lakshminarayanan of Puducherry had submitted that the order has been high handedly passed and communicated pending the petition. Pointing out that the government has appointed the three members belonging to the BJP and RSS by resorting to backdoor method, he said after taking notice, the government willfully and wantonly cooked up records as if they have passed an order nominating the three members prior to the filing of the writ petition. He also submitted that the entire exercise is wholly illegal and is an abuse of power, aimed at tilting the balance of power in the Assembly.