New Delhi: The Supreme Court has approved a hike in fees for private colleges offering Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) courses in Kerala.
It has allowed increasing fees by Rs 45,000 for the merit seats and Rs 60,000 for the management seats.
From 2008 onwards, Rs 29,000 has been charged as the fee for the merit and management seats. Advocates Maninder Singh and Harris Beeran, appearing for the association of the private B Ed college owners pointed out that the expenses to run the colleges were exceptionally high, especially after the University Grants Commission (UGC) published its renewed guidelines in 2017.
The bench of Justices SK Kaul and MM Sundaresh rejected the state government’s stand that fees cannot be increased in view of the COVID-19 crisis.
The standing counsel CK Sasi conveyed the state government’s argument that fees shouldn’t be hiked for any courses in light of the COVID-19 crisis.