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Vasavi Engineering College Parents Association v. State of Telangana and Others

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 705Decided 1 Jul 2019
Civil Appeal No. 5133 of 2019
Justice Arun Mishra · Justice Navin Sinha

Background

Under Supreme Court precedent, Telangana set up a Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC) to fix fee structures for private unaided engineering/professional colleges for the 2016-19 block period. Several institutions challenged the Committee's notified fees before a Single Judge of the High Court, who twice found the fixation improper, sent it back for reconsideration, and ultimately fixed the fee structure himself to his own satisfaction instead of leaving it to the Committee. This appeal (Civil Appeal No. 5133 of 2019, filed by a parents' association) was heard together with two connected appeals by the State of Telangana and the Committee against the same High Court orders.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that fixing fees for professional institutions is a specialised, expert exercise meant to balance the interests of students, institutions and society, not an adversarial dispute to be second-guessed by courts merely because a different view is possible. It found that the High Court had exceeded its jurisdiction by substituting its own fee determination for that of the expert Committee, and that the grounds the High Court relied on to justify taking over this decision-making role were factually distinguishable precedents with no real bearing on fee-fixing by a domain-expert body. All three tagged appeals (including this one) were allowed together: the High Court's orders were set aside, and the TAFRC's original fee recommendation for the 2016-17 to 2018-19 block period was restored, with directions to activate bank guarantees furnished under an earlier interim order to protect student interests.

Lesson Learnt

Courts generally should not substitute their own judgment for that of an expert regulatory body (like a fee-fixing committee) just because the court might have reached a different number: judicial review of such technical/economic determinations is meant to check jurisdictional or procedural error, not to re-do the expert's job.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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