Icon Education Society vs. State of Madhya Pradesh & Others
Background
Icon Education Society, which runs two unaided minority educational institutions in Indore (a law college and a nursing college), was asked by Madhya Pradesh's Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (AFRC) to submit its fee proposals for regulation under the state's 2007 fee-fixation law. The Society argued that, as a minority institution protected under Article 30(1) of the Constitution, the AFRC had no power to regulate its fees at all, and it sought exemption. Its appeal and review before the statutory appellate authority were rejected, and the Madhya Pradesh High Court also dismissed its writ petition, relying on earlier Supreme Court rulings upholding the 2007 Act.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court held that this issue was already settled by a Constitution Bench in a 2016 judgment (Modern Dental College), which had "read down" the fee law to mean the AFRC only has a regulatory/reviewing role. It can check that fees proposed by an institution are not profiteering or capitation-based, but it cannot unilaterally fix the fees itself. The Court traced this principle back to the 11-judge bench in T.M.A. Pai Foundation and the 7-judge bench in P.A. Inamdar, both of which held that unaided institutions (minority or not) are free to devise their own fee structure, subject only to a check against profiteering and capitation fees. Applying this, the Court ruled that AFRC could not fix fees on its own initiative as it purported to do here, but the Society was also not entitled to complete immunity from AFRC's review. It must submit its proposed fees to the AFRC for scrutiny under the statutory factors.
Lesson Learnt
Even minority educational institutions with constitutional protection under Article 30 must propose their own fees and submit them for regulatory review against profiteering: the right to administer an institution is not a right to escape all oversight, but genuine autonomy over fee-setting (not government fee-fixing) must be respected.