Cabinet has increased the Penalty for Capitation Fee to Rs. 1 crore

Are you charging more pennies at the time of admission..?? Do you make false claims while advertising your institute..?? Better stop such practices; else prepare yourself to pay Rs. 1 crore as the penalty for capitation fee.

The government has raised the penalty on educational institutions for charging capitation fees. The penalty has been increased from proposed Rs. 50 lakh to Rs. 1 crore. The cabinet has approved the amendments to the ‘Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical Educational Institutions, Medical Educational Institutions and Universities Bill, 2010'. In a recent meeting, this bill has now been renamed as ‘Higher Educational Institutions Act, 2011'.

Such amendments have been made on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development (HRD). This practice had come into effect to curb the unfair practices in the higher education segment. The proposed legislation aims to provide an institutional mechanism for preventing, prohibiting and punishing unfair practices in technical and medical educational institutions and universities.

This move will bring all higher education institutions under its pursuit, except agriculture education and research, which is a matter of state. The bill was introduced in Lok Sabha in March 2010 and it was proposed by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development (HRD).

The committee has submitted its recommendations in May 2011. Overall it has submitted 48 amendments, out of which the government has accepted 41. The basic purpose of this amendment is to curtail the profiteering of educational institutes that are currently beyond the scope of any regulation.

Source: Richha Bhatnagar (Shiksha Team)