APPCOVID-19 CITY Tamil Nadu medical admission: Madras high court appeals to philanthropists to bear fees of students under 7.5% quota
A division bench of justices N Kirubakaran and B Pugalendhi was hearing a public interest litigation filed by M Grahambell, a resident of Tirunelveli district, who sought for a direction for fixation of minimum fees for MBBS courses at self-financing colleges in the state.
The judges observed that the state government with a noble objective had brought in the Act where 7.5% reservation was provided for government school students for admission in medical courses. A total of 86 students have secured admission in self-financing colleges under the 7.5% quota for this academic year.
Since the fees comes up to nearly Rs 4 lakh per year, the government should ensure that the students do not drop out. Taking cognizance of the fact that a senior counsel Veera Kathiravan, practising in the high court had agreed to bear the education expenses of one such student from Thanjavur district, the judges made the appeal to philanthropists.
Hearing another batch of pleas on Friday, the judges reserved orders on the petitions seeking to extend the benefit of the 7.5% reservation to government aided school students.
The counsels appearing for the petitioners submitted that students studying in government and aided schools should be seen on the same footing and there should not be any differentiation among them. Though they welcome the Act, they are challenging the portion of the Act as it had excluded the aided school students.
The advocate general Vijay Narayan submitted the Act has been brought in to benefit students of government schools as they are from the weaker sections and the same cannot be extended to aided students as they are nothing but private schools.
After elaborately hearing the submissions made on either side, the court reserved orders.
The cases were adjourned to November 27.
