Govt constitutes Fee fixation committee

Tamil Nadu government today informed the Madras High Court that it has constituted a Fee Fixation Committee headed by Justice N V Balasubramanian, retired Judge of Madras High Court, to fix fee for diploma courses in Self Financing Polytechnic Colleges and Hotel Management and Catering Technology Institutions.
Additional Government Pleader R Sanjay Gandhi submitted an affidavit in this regard on a petition by Tamil Nadu Unaided Polytechnic Management Association.
The association had sought a direction from the Court for forming a mandatory fee committee for Polytechnic colleges.
On September 11, 2012, the government had issued an order by which guidelines have been issued for granting fee concession under centrally assisted scheme to all sorts of non-refundable fee components paid by SC/ST students.

As per the order, the amount eligible for reimbursement of fees under free quota seats was fixed at Rs 6,500 and under payment quota seats it was fixed at Rs 21,700.
Contending that before issuance of the Government Order (GO) in 2012, the institutions, which were members of the association, were collecting Rs 30,000 from all the students.

The association filed a petition in the court to direct the government to revise the applicability of the GO so as to enable the government to reimburse existing fee of Rs 30,000 for each student for the academic years 2012-13 and 2013-14.

Sivashanmugaraja, Director, Adi Dravidar Welfare Department submitted that prayer for reimbursement cannot be entertained. The Association members were not supposed to collect Rs 30,000 uniformly as they have not a uniform infrastructure facility.
Moreover, the academic year 2012-13 and 2013-14 were already completed, he submitted.