Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court allowed the request of Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT) to enhance the fee for its BE/BTech, MTech and MBA/MCA courses for the block period of 2025-26 to 2027-28. The court also made it clear that the collection of fees at the enhanced rate would be subject to further orders.
Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy of the High Court directed the convener, admissions, of TG Eapcet to update the fee collectable by the CBIT asRs.2,23,000 for the BE/BTech courses, per student per annum, on the official website. The court also permitted CBIT to enhance the fee to Rs.1,51,600 for the MTech course and Rs.1,40,000 for the MBA/MCA course.
The judge was dealing with a petition filed by CBIT which challenged Government Order (GO) 26 dated June 30, issued by the higher education department, which stated that the fee for the upcoming academic year would be that determined for block period of 2022-23 to 2024-25, on the recommendations of the Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC).
Prima facie, the court opined that the said GO, which was general in nature, would cause substantial hardship to the CBIT and was contrary to the provisions of the GO 6 dated 08.01.2007.
In another batch of petitions filed on Thursday as a lunch motion by several engineering colleges, seeking fee enhancement, Justice K. Lakshman of the High Court expressed dissatisfaction over approach of the TAFRC and the government in not taking a decision till the beginning of the new academic year and issuing a GO at the time counselling started.
Justice Lakshman observed that this kind of delay was continuing every year, and that colleges would rush to the High Court challenging the AFRC and government’s decision. The court observed: “We should learn how foreign countries like the US, Canada, and even smaller countries are providing free education to students till Intermediate, with systematic planning. Our system has developed such a way that no decision would be taken till the deadline comes, the court expressed displeasure.
Guru Nanak, Gokaraju Rangaraju and 11 other colleges filed the lunch motion petitions challenging the GO 26.
Justice Lakshman questioned why the government had not taken a decision till June 30, when these colleges had sent their proposals by the end of December 2024. The judge asked what the 15-member AFRC, was headed by a former High Court judge, was doing all these days and had sent a recommendation to the government only June 18.
The judge also questioned the silence of the college managements and their not following up regularly to get their proposals considered by the AFRC and the state government. “You wait until the last minute and come to the High Court by filing urgent or lunch motion petitions at the time of counselling for enhancement of the fee. It is not the court’s duty to find out whether to enhance the fee or not,” the judge said.
Senior counsel Avinash Desai, representing the colleges, submitted that the proposal had been sent by the colleges in December 2024 and the fee committee was constituted in March. He also submitted that the committee had accepted the proposals. On the court`s direction, by the evening of Thursday, the AFRC furnished the proposals and committee meeting details.
Rahul Reddy, special counsel for the state, submitted that the government’s role was only to accept the proposals of AFRC. He said that the colleges had sent proposals to enhance the fee by 70 to 80 per cent. Some colleges had sought a fee increase of Rs.1 lakh over the existing fee. The court said that it would pronounce its orders on Friday.
