- A Supreme Court bench has appointed the Khurshid Committee, to be headed by former Union Minister Salman Khurshid, to thoroughly study the issue of collection of capitation fees by educational institutions and suggest measures to curb it.
- Capitation fee collected by educational institutions is a widely prevalent menace despite being banned by various states and even the Supreme Court. The issue has garnered interest due to the problem with fixation of fees by committees in different states.
- In various cases, the SC has:
- Termed it illegal (Mohini Jain Vs Karnataka (1992))
- Questioned the idea of imparting of education being treated as a trade (Unnikrishnan J.P. vs. Andhra Pradesh (1993))
- Completely banned it (Islamic Academy of Education(2003))
- While SC believes educational institutions to be entitled to a surplus of funds that can be utilized for further upgrade and expand, they have prohibited them from indulging in profiteering.
- However private institutions, especially the ones offering engineering and medical courses, continue to charge capitation fee ranging from Rs. 40lakh to Rs. 1 crore.
- Parents are willing to pay the fee to secure their child’s future, as a result of which education sector has now emerged as one of the largest source of black money.
- Read at: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/curbing-capitation-fee/article6305922.ece