Regulation of Admission

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, admission to seats in a private professional educational institution excluding the management seats shall be made on the basis of the merit of the candidate in the Common Entrance Test. (2) The State Government may, by notification, specify the procedure for admission to professional courses in a private professional educational institution, to ensure that the admission is made in a transparent, fair and non-exploitative manner. (3) Any admission made in violation of the provisions of this Act shall be void. (4) The management of the institution may admit students against the management seats in such manner as may be prescribed. (5) The State Government may, by rules, provide for the reservation of seats for candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. (6) The admission to all seats in a private professional educational institution shall be made by the competent authority in such manner as may be prescribed. (1) The State Government shall, by notification in the official Gazette, constitute a Committee to be called the Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee, for the supervision and guidance of the admission process and for the fixation of fee to be charged from candidates seeking admission in a private professional educational institution. Provided that notwithstanding anything contained in any act the fee once fixed shall be revisable every year or in a gap of three years as may be necessary, by the Fee Regulating Committee. (2) The Committee shall be presided by a Chairperson who has been a Vice Chancellor of a Central University or a State University or an institute deemed to be University or a judicial officer not below the rank of Super time scale or senior administrative officer not below the rank of Principal Secretary to the State Government or Joint Secretary to the Government of India and shall include four other members having expertise in matters of finance, administration or law, technical education and medical education. (Financial expenses will be met separately by the department of technical education/medical education. Budget to meet out the expenses incurred in functioning of the committee will be allocated by the State Government separately every year.) (3) The term of the Committee shall be three years from the date of its notification and in case of any vacancy arising earlier, for any reason, the State Government shall fill such vacancy for the remainder of the term. (4) No Act or proceedings of the Committee shall be deemed to be invalid by reason merely of any vacancy or any defect in the constitution of the Committee. (5) No person who is associated with a private aided or unaided educational institution shall be eligible for being a member of the Committee. (6) The Chairperson or any member of the Committee shall cease to be so, if he performs any Act, which in the opinion of the State Government is unbecoming of Chairperson or a member of the Committee. (7) The Committee may frame its own procedure in accordance with the regulations notified by the State Government in this regard. (8) The Committee may require a private aided or unaided professional educational institution or, a deemed University to furnish, by a prescribed date, information as may be necessary for enabling the Committee to determine the fee that may be charged by the institution in respect of each professional course, and the fee so determined shall be valid for such period as notified by the State Government. (9) The Committee may hear complaints with regards to admission in contravention of the provisions contained herein, collecting of capitation fee or fee in excess of fee determined or profiteering by any institution, and if the Committee after enquiry finds that there has been any violation of the provisions for admission on the part of the unaided professional colleges or institution, it shall make appropriate recommendation for returning an excess amount collected to the person concerned, and also recommendation to the Government for imposing a fine upto Rs. 10,00,000, and Government may on receipt of such recommendation, fix the fine and collect the same in the case of each such violation or decide any other course of action as it deems fit and the amount so fixed together with interest thereon shall be recovered as if it is an arrear of land revenue and the committee may also declare admission made in respect of any or all seats in a particular college or institution to be invalid.