The Andhra Pradesh High Court had on Wednesday suspended G.O. Ms No. 24 related to fixation of fee structure for the block period 2023-24 to 2025-26 issued by the Higher Education Department while hearing a petition filed by the aggrieved private unaided degree colleges.
These colleges, numbering more than 150, challenged the impugned G.O. through which permission to participate in the online counselling for admissions for the said period had been withheld by the Higher Education Department on the ground that they (the petitioner-colleges) made less than 25% admissions than the sanctioned intake, purportedly as per the recommendations of the A.P. Higher Education Regulatory & Monitoring Commission.
The petitioners contended that non-determination of the fee structure on the same ground as above and not allowing them to take part in the counselling scheduled to start from July 20 was violative of Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution, AP Educational Institutions (Regulations of Admissions and Prohibition of Capitation Fee) Act of 1983, and the AP Higher Education Monitoring and Regulatory Commission Act and Rules.
The institutions said in their petition that the exercise of discretionary powers of the AP Higher Education Regulatory & Monitoring Commission with regard to the determination of fee structure of private unaided degree colleges was pending before the High Court, and on top of it, the government issued the G.O. M.S No. 24 by ignoring the fact that they had been offering various courses for more than a decade and maintaining good standards thereof to the satisfaction of the students, parents and the authorities concerned.
Going ahead with online counselling under such circumstances and on the basis of the recommendations of the regulatory commission was contrary to the rules in vogue, and detrimental to the interests of the student community at large, the colleges asserted.
