A. Kjayasankaran Nambiar, J.

1. These writ petitions impugn the orders passed by the State Government fixing the fees that can be collected by self financing colleges offering degree and diploma courses in the field of paramedical sciences. As the issues that arise for consideration are the same in both the writ petitions, they are taken up together for disposal by this common judgment.

2. The brief facts that are necessary for the disposal of the writ petitions may be noticed;

The petitioners in W.P.(C).No.19203/2013 comprise of an Association of Managing bodies of Self Financing para-medical institutions and two para-medical institutions and the petitioners in W.P.(C).No.20438/2013 comprise of the Managing bodies of nine para-medical institutions as well as individual members of such managing bodies. In both the writ petitions, the grievance voiced by the petitioners is against the alleged arbitrary fixation, by the State Government, of the fees that can be collected by the petitioners from students who are admitted to their institutes for the pursuit of para-medical courses offered by them. The petitioners contend that some of the member institutions of the Association are established and maintained by minority communities who are entitled for the privilege and protection under Article 30(1) of the Constitution of India while the other institutions, being self-financing professional institutions, have a right under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India to fix their own fee structure, subject to the safeguards prescribed by the Supreme Court in TMA Pai v State of Karnataka - ((2002) 8 SCC 481), Islamic Academy v State of Karnataka -((2003) 6 SCC 697) and P. A. Inamdar v State of Maharashtra - ((2005) 6 SCC 527).

3. It is pointed out by the petitioners that, pursuant to the limited powers conceded to the State Government, vide the judgments of the Supreme Court referred to above, the State Government had constituted an expert committee comprising, inter alia, of the Director of Medical Education, the Joint Director of Medical Education, the Vice-Principal of the Government Medical College, Calicut and the Director of PIPMS, Thiruvananthapuram, to go into the issue of fee structure for para-medical courses and make recommendations to the Government through a formal report. The expert committee had since gone into the matter and submitted a report to the Government with their recommendations. The State Government, however, proceeded to fix the fee structure for para-medical courses in the State at a level substantially lower than that recommended by the expert committee in their report. The petitioners contend that the fee structure recommended by the expert committee was, in itself, low and hence the action of the Government, in further reducing the fee structure, rendered the fixation of fees wholly arbitrary and unreasonable and violative of the fundamental rights of the petitioners.

4. It must be noticed at this stage that when W.P.(C). No.19203/2013 came up for admission in August 2013, it was deemed necessary to make some interim arrangement in the matter of the fees that could be collected by the petitioner institutions while admitting students to the paramedical courses for the academic year 2013-14. Accordingly, vide an interim order dated 12.08.2013, we directed that, as against the tuition fees of Rs.27,250 for Government merit seats and Rs.52,000 for Management seats, stipulated for Degree Courses and Rs.12,000 for Government merit seats and Rs.33,000 for management seats, stipulated for Diploma Courses in the Government order, the petitioners could provisionally collect Rs.30,000 and Rs.52,000 respectively for Government merit seats and Management seats for the Degree Courses and Rs.20,000 and Rs.40,000 respectively for Government merit seats and Management seats for the Diploma Courses. This arrangement was to continue pending the final disposal of the writ petitions. We are given to understa