Intro. (Act 19 of 2006)

An Act to provide for prohibition of capitation fee, regulation of admission, fixation of non-exploitative fee, allotment of seats to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other socially and economically backward classes and other measures to ensure equity and excellence in professional education and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Preamble. - Whereas, the Hon'ble Supreme Court has held that where there is more than one minority or non-minority institution or similarly situated institution in the State imparting education in any one discipline, then a single common entrance test followed by centralized counselling or in other words single window system of admission is necessary in order to achieve the twin objectives of transparency and merit and further has held that the State can take over the admission procedure to ensure that it is fair, transparent and non-exploitative;

And Whereas, it is consid

S.1 Short title and commencement. -

(1) This Act may be called the Kerala Professional Colleges or Institutions (Prohibition of Capitation Fee, Regulation of Admission, Fixation of Non-Exploitative Fee and Other Measures to Ensure Equity and Excellence in Professional Education) Act, 2006.

(2) It shall come into force at once.

S.2 Definitions.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-

(a) 'Admission Supervisory Committee' means the committee constituted under section 4 for regulating admission in unaided professional colleges or institutions;

(b) 'Aided College' means a professional college or an institution receiving recurring financial aid or grant-in-aid from any State or Central Government and includes minority and non-minority professional college or institution, as specified by the Government;

(c) 'Capitation Fees' means any amount by whatever name called whether in cash or in kind paid or collected or received directly or indirectly in addition to the fees determined under this Act;

(d) 'common entrance test' means the entrance test conducted for determination of merit of the candidates followed by centralised counselling for the purpose of merit based admission to professional colleges or institutions

S.3 Method of admission in Professional Colleges or Institutions.

Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force or in any judgment, decree or order of any Court or any other authority, admission of students in all professional colleges or institutions to all seats except Non-Resident Indian seats shall be made through Common Entrance Test conducted by the State followed by centralised counselling through a single window system in the order of merit by the State Commissioner for Entrance Examinations in accordance with such procedure as may be specified by the Government from time to time.

S.4 Admission Supervisory Committee. -

(1) The Government shall constitute an Admission Supervisory Committee to supervise and guide the process of admission of students to unaided professional colleges or institutions consisting of the following members, namely:-

(2) Where the Admission Supervisory Committee on receipt of any complaint or is otherwise satisfied that the management of an unaided professional college or institution or any person who is in charge of it or is responsible for the management of such college or institution has violated the provisions of sub-section (1), the Admission Supervisory Committee may after due enquiry recommend to the Government for taking penal action against the management.

(3) The Admission Supervisory Committee shall have the

S.6 Fee Regulatory Committee. -

(1) The Government shall constitute a Committee called the Fee Regulatory Committee for determination of the fee for admission to the unaided professional colleges or institutions consisting of the following members, namely:-

(a) the obligation on the part of all unaided professional colleges or institutions to provide freeship to a minimum of fifty per cent of the students admitted and the additional expenses, if any, required for the same over and above the excess funds generated from Non-Resident Indians, charity on the part of managements and contribution by the Government for providing freeship for scheduled caste or scheduled tribe students;

(b) the nature of the professional course;

(c) the available infrastructure;

(d) the expenditure on administration and maintenance;

(e) a reasonable surplus required for the growth and development of the college;

(f) any other factor as

S.8 Determining factors for according recognition and conferring status as un-aided minority professional college or institution.

A minority unaided professional college or institution established and maintained by any linguistic or religious minority shall be accorded recognition and conferred status as an un-aided minority professional college or institution only if it satisfies all the following conditions of demographic equivalence between the minority community to which the college belongs and the non-minority community of the State, taken as a single unit, namely:- (a) the population of the linguistic or religious minority community in the State which runs the professional college or institution shall be lesser than fifty per cent of the total population of the State.

(b) the number of professional colleges or institutions run by the linguistic or religious minority community in the State to which the college or institution belongs shall be proportionately lesser than the number of professional colleges or institutions run by the non-minority community in the State.<

S.9 Fees not to be collected excessively.

(1) No unaided professional college or institution shall collect any fee by whatever name called from the candidate for admission over and above the fee determined by the Fee Regulatory Committee and the fee prescribed by the University concerned:

Provided that the Fee Regulatory Committee shall fix the fee for Non- Resident Indian seats and the amount so collected over and above the fee fixed for other students in the college or institution in such seats shall be utilised for providing freeship to socially and economically backward students.

(2) All unaided professional colleges or institutions shall provide freeship to the extent prescribed for a minimum of fifty per cent of the students admitted.

(3) Any officer of the State or Central Government or any other public officer or authority who issues an income certificate which conceals the actual income of the person to whom the certificate is issued

S.10 Allotment of seats.

(1) In every professional college or institution other than a minority college,-

(a) ten per cent of the total number of sanctioned seats shall be earmarked for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes;

(b) twenty-five per cent of the total number of sanctioned seats to the Other Socially and Educationally Backward Classes;

(c) three per cent of the total number of sanctioned seats shall be earmarked for physically challenged persons ; and

(d) twelve per cent of the total number of sanctioned seats shall be earmarked for the other sections of society not covered under items (a), (b) and (c) of this sub-section on merit-cum-means basis:

Provided that in an unaided professional college or institution the provisions in item (c) and (d) shall apply in accordance with the consensus based on mutual agreement arrived at between the unaided professional college or i

S.11 Invalidation of admissions.

Any admission made in violation of the provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder shall be invalid.

S.12 Higher Education Scholarship Fund. -

(1) The Government may by notification in the Gazette constitute a Fund called the Higher Education Scholarship Fund for providing scholarship to socially and economically backward students admitted in professional colleges or institutions on meritcum means basis.

(2) The corpus of the fund shall be the contribution from the Government, the amount of fine levied under this Act and the funds raised from any other source including Non-Resident Indians.

(3) The fund shall be administered by an Administrator appointed by the Government. The administration of the fund including the corpus shall be in such manner as may be prescribed.

(4) The accounts of the fund shall be audited annually by the Accountant General.

(5) The Administrator shall before such date, in such form and at such interval as may be prescribed submit a report to the Government and the Government shall cause a copy o

S.13 Protection of action taken in good faith. -

No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie against any member of the Admission Supervisory Committee or Fee Regulatory Committee or any other officer of the Government for anything which is done in good faith or intended to be done in good faith under this Act.

S.14 Power of the Government to issue directions.

(1) The Government may give such directions to any professional college or institution as in its opinion are necessary or expedient for carrying out the purposes of this Act or give effect to any of the provisions contained therein or in any rules or orders made thereunder and the management of the college or institution shall comply with every such direction.

(2) The Government may also give such directions to the officers or authorities under its control which in its opinion are necessary or expedient for carrying out the purposes of this Act.

S.15 Penalties.

(1) Whoever contravenes the provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder shall, on conviction be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than one year but which may extend to three years and with fine which shall not be less than rupees fifty lakhs.

(2) A penalty under this section may be imposed without prejudice to the penalty specified in any other law for the time being in force.

S.16 Cognizance of offence.

No court shall take cognizance of any offence punishable under this Act except on a report in writing of the facts constituting such offence made by an officer authorised by the Government in this behalf by notification published in the Gazette.

S.17 Power to remove difficulties. -

(1) If any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this Act, the Government may, by order, as occasion requires, but not later than two years from the date of commencement of this Act, do anything not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act which appears to them necessary for removing the difficulty.

(2) Every order issued under sub-section (1) shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is issued, before the Legislative Assembly.

S.18 Special provisions for admissions and fixation of fee for the academic year 2006-07.

Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (4) of section 6, the Fee Regulatory Committee shall have the power to extend the date of submission of documents and books of accounts for scrutiny for the determination and fixation of fee for the year 2006-07 in such a way as to facilitate admissions in accordance with the provisions of this Act during the academic year 2006-07. The Fee Regulatory Committee shall be competent to fix the fee provisionally for the academic year 2006-07 subject to final adjustments later.

S.19 Power to make rules. -

(1) The Government may, by notification in the Gazette, make rules for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this Act.

(2) Every rule made under this section shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before the Legislative Assembly while it is in session for a total period of fourteen days which may be comprised in one session or in two successive sessions and if before the expiry of the session in which it is so laid or the session immediately following, the Legislative Assembly makes any modification to the rule or decides that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be, so however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule.

S.20 Repeal.

The Kerala Self-Financing Professional Colleges (Prohibition of Capitation Fees and Procedure for Admission and Fixation of Fees) Act, 2004 (17 of 2004) is hereby repealed.