Courts will uphold regulatory authorities' mandates for data submission from educational institutions to facilitate fee determination, balancing regulatory needs against institutional autonomy in education.

JUDGMENT :

DHIRAJ SINGH THAKUR, CJ.

The present writ appeals have been preferred against the judgment and order, dated 05.12.2023, passed in a batch of writ petitions bearing Nos.32909, 32967, 35109 of 2022; 20878 and 22945 of 2023. Since the issues of fact and law in this set of cases are same, we propose to deal with them by way of a common judgment and order.

A batch of writ petitions came to be filed by private unaided engineering colleges established in the State of Andhra Pradesh as also by the Associations representing some of the Engineering colleges. The petitions are filed challenging the notification, dated 30.06.2022, issued by the Andhra Pradesh Higher Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission requiring data to be furnished as prescribed in 31 Schedules described in the guidelines with a view to fix the fee which the colleges would be permitted to charge.

The petitioners' case in brief was that some of the information sought by the Commission was unnecessary and irrelevant besides being cumbersome.

Be that as it may, we deem it appropriate to briefly state the facts as under :

2. There is in force in the State of Andhra Pradesh an Act called the Andhra Pradesh Higher Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission Act, 2019 (hereinafter referred to as, “the Act of 2019”). The said Act, according to the preamble, was enacted “to establish the Andhra Pradesh Higher Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission to maintain standards of education, regulation of fee, service condition of teachers and safeguard the interest of students and to ensure public spiritedness, equity, excellence, financial stability and probity along with good governance and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.”

The Act is meant to apply to all higher educational institutions including medical, dental, agriculture, horticulture, engineering and veterinary institutions in the State of Andhra Pradesh.

The Commission is headed by a Chairperson, who is to be a retired Judge of the High Court and other members, in terms of Section 4 of the said Act.

Chapter III deals with powers and functions of the Commission. Section 9(ii), in particular, provides that the Commission shall have the power to monitor and regulate fee in higher educational institutions in accordance with the rules, guidelines and procedures prescribed for that purpose.

3. Section 9(a) of the Act envisages the Commission to ensure that standards of admission, teaching, examination, research, qualification of teachers and infrastructure, are maintained by the higher educational institutions in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Regulatory Authorities of the Central Government from time to time.

Section 9(b) of the Act further envisages that the Commission shall have the power to monitor and regulate fee in higher educational institutions in accordance with the rules, guidelines and procedures, prescribed for the purpose.

4. In exercise of the powers conferred under sub-section 1 of Section 23 of the Act of 2019, the rules called as „the Andhra Pradesh Higher Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission Rules, 2019‟ (for short, “the Rules”) have been framed.

Rule 8 of the said Rules deals with the power of the Commission to call from each institution its proposed fee structure well in advance along with the relevant documents and books of account for scrutiny. The Commission in terms of Rule 8(2) has the power to decide whether the fee proposed by the institutions is justified and does not amount to profiteering or charging of capitation fee.

Rule 8(3) vests in the Commission the liberty to approve or alter the proposed fee for each course to be charged by the institution. The proviso, however, envisages that it shall give the institution an opportunity of being heard before fixing any fee or fees.

Rule 8(4) requires the Commission to take into consideration the following factors while prescribing the fee:

“(a) The location of the Higher Educational Institution,

(b) T