The Kerala government had issued an order on 20 August, implementing its control over admissions to self-financing colleges in the state. As per the new directive, half the self-financing seats in medical colleges must be filled from through an entrance test conducted by the state.
Admissions to management and NRI seats of private medical colleges will be made through the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). With this, admission to all medical seats in the state will become merit-based.
But managements of self-financing colleges have refused to accept this order and said they would not part with their rights to select students to their colleges. They are planning to move court against the order.
In case the court ruling favors the managements’ arguments, a decision on the fee structure will be left to the Justice J.M. James committee. The committee will also ensure that no malpractices take place in the admission process. Though the panel was to meet Monday, it was postponed. A new date for the meeting has not been fixed.
The government intends to fix the fee structure in consultation with self-financing college managements, hoping the latter would return to the negotiation table if they don't receive a favorable court ruling. But the managements can approach the high court if the ruling goes against them.
The Kerala Private Medical College Association has decided to call for applicants to all seats, including those in NRI and management quotas, this week itself. The association's representatives have said that the government should give managements the right to conduct admissions to 50 percent of the seats.
Four medical colleges come under the inter-church council. Last year, the entrance examinations commissioner selected students to half of the seats in these colleges. The annual fees was fixed at Rs 4.25 lakh for each seat. The managements were free to admit students of their choice to the rest of the seats. About 35 percent of the management seats had a fee of Rs 4.25 lakh while the other 15 percent reserved for NRIs had a fee of Rs 10 lakh.
This year, the government says the entrance examinations commissioner will admit students to all seats in the inter-church council's medical colleges. The government has also signed an agreement with the managements, limiting fees to Rs 4.4 lakh each in 85 percent of seats and Rs 11 lakh each in NRI seats, but it has not said anything about executing the agreement.