Pinnacle Court said that education has become an industry fees prohibitive

01-06-2022
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said education in India has become an industry go past business houses and lamented that students pursuing medicine are forced to travel to far-off countries like Ukraine thanks to the prohibitive fees in medical colleges.

This observation came from a vacation bench of Justices B R Gavai and Hima Kohli on a petition by the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) challenging the orders of the Delhi and Karnataka high courts quashing the regulatory body’s decision imposing a five-year moratorium on opening of recent pharmacy colleges with effect from the 2020-21 year. 

Appearing for the PCI, law officer Tushar Mehta said the moratorium was imposed taking into consideration the mushrooming of pharmacy colleges, making them a business proposition and resulting in lowering of education standards.

The Justice Gavai-led bench said, “Everyone knows that education has become an industry in India. they're business houses running the medical and pharmacy colleges. the price of education has become so prohibitive that students are forced to travel to Ukraine.”

Appearing for parties aiming to open new pharmacy colleges but hit by the PCI’s moratorium decision, senior advocates Devadatt Kamat and Vinay Navare said the HCs have quashed the council’s decision as violative of the elemental right guaranteed under Article 19(1)(g). They requested the SC to order the PCI to process the applications as these proposed institutes have already lost two academic years due to the moratorium despite organising the infrastructure for opening of pharmacy colleges. 

Mehta suggested that the PCI would receive applications but sought stay of the HC direction to process the requests for permission to open new pharmacy colleges. He said processing of the applications would amount to allowing the plea of the institutions aspiring for permission from the PCI.

The bench asked the PCI to process the applications without taking a judicial decision either accepting or rejecting the requests for brand spanking new pharmacy colleges. The SC posted final hearing on the PCI appeals on July 26.