SC asks AP govt to pay Rs 3,500 crore to pvt colleges

Updated on: Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The Supreme Court today directed the Andhra Pradesh government to pay by June 15 around Rs 3,500 crore as reimbursement to private engineering colleges towards fees for the poor students whose parental income was less than Rs. one lakh per year.
A Bench of Justice R V Raveendran and Justice A K Patnaik asked the state governemnt to pay the amount in 3 instalments.

It asked the government to pay the first instalment by the end of March, second by May-end and the last by June 15.

The Court had during the last hearing pulled up the state for seeking extension of time by 3 months for reimbursement.

The apex court passed the order on an appeal filed by the state government challenging the Andhra Pradesh High Court which had asked it to pay the students' full fee at the stage of admission itself.

The colleges have complained that the government is not paying the fee for SC, ST, BC and EBC students at the beginning of academic year. They said the government had promised to reimburse later and they are finding it difficult
to run the institutions at the expected standards.

Advocates Bina Madhavan and Krishna Kumar Singh, counsel for Consortium of Engineering College Managements, contended the state had not reimbursed the colleges for 2008-09 and 2009-10, which amounted to around Rs. 4,037 crore
and the government had so far paid only Rs. 300 crore.

They opposed the plea of Andhra Pradesh government for granting time till September 2011 for payment of the reimbursment, contending that the new academic session will commnence by July and it would cause additional burden on the faculty.

Further, much delay on the disbursal of amount would have adverse affect as it would be difficult to pay the salary of faculty members who may not take classes due to non-payment of salary.

Acting on the appeal, the Supreme Court had in December last made an interim order that the state should pay 25 per cent of the fee within first four weeks of admission of students, another 25 per cent within 8 weeks thereafter.

Further, the state should undertake the verification of the certificates and within four months thereafter, it should pay the remaining 50 per cent of the fee.

SC asks AP govt to pay Rs 3,500 crore to pvt colleges

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