Not Disproportionate In Any Manner: Madhya Pradesh High Court Upholds Constitutionality Of Chief Minister’s Public Welfare Education Encouragement Scheme

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has upheld the Constitutionality of Chief Minister’s Public Welfare Education Encouragement Scheme i.e., Mukhya Mantri Jankalyan Shiksha Protsahan Yojana.

The Court was deciding a Writ Petition preferred by H.K. Kalchuri Educational Trust, a society running private medical college in the name of L.N. Medical College, Bhopal.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Vivek Jain held, “… we have no hesitation in upholding the constitutionality of the impugned schemes which are framed with a laudable objective of promoting merit in medical colleges in the State, have a rational nexus with a lawful and Constitutional object, and are not found disproportionate in any manner.”

The Bench was of the view that the impugned schemes are with a laudable purpose to enable meritorious students to get admission in colleges as per choice and as per the merits of the student concerned.

Advocate Siddharth Radhe Lal Gupta represented the Petitioners while Deputy Advocate General (DAG) B.D. Singh represented the Respondents.

Facts of the Case

The Petitioners challenged the validity of Mukhyamantri Medhavi Vidyarthi Yojna, 2017 (Chief Minister Meritorious Student Scheme, 2017) as amended subsequently vide amending order dated August 30, 2017 and consequential allotment list issued by the State Government for the session 2017-2018. By way of amendment, the subsequent Scheme known as Mukhya Mantri Jankalyan Shiksha Protsahan Yojana (Chief Minister’s Public Welfare Education Encouragement Scheme) was put to challenge that also contains similar provisions. The Petitioners’ case was that the State of Madhya Pradesh instituted a scheme known as Chief Minister Meritorious Students Scheme which is originally in Hindi and named as Mukhyamantri Medhavi Vidyarthi Yojna, 2017 (MMMVY Scheme) as replaced later by Mukhya Mantri Jankalyan Shiksha Protsahan Yojana (MMJKY Scheme).

The counsel for the Petitioners while pressing the challenge to validity of said schemes submitted that the said schemes are a piece of delegated legislation by way of executive instructions issued by the State Government without any legal authority and as per the said schemes it has been provided that the student who is original resident of/domicile of Madhya Pradesh and having annual income of his parents/guardian below Rs. 6 lakhs per annum would be covered under the scheme. As per the said schemes, the State Government has given guarantee to bear the fees of meritorious students in Government and Private Colleges who are studying in Engineering, Medical and Law streams.

Reasoning

The High Court after hearing the contentions of the counsel, observed, “So far as the issue of direct remittance of fee in the account of educational institution is concerned, it has been explained by the State that there were various instances which were being detected when earlier fees were being reimbursed directly to the account of the colleges and there uses to be instances when students used to take admissions in number of Colleges as per their qualification in examination of class-12 and then draw scholarship of first year or fees reimbursement of first year in all those colleges and then continue education only in one of the colleges for the succeeding year.”

The Court added that by paying the fees directly to the college, monitoring of such type of malpractices is not possible and the consistent practice now is to remit fees to the accounts of students which is in case of remittance of fee or even in case of scholarship, both to ensure prevention of malpractices of one student drawing multiple reimbursement for scholarship.

“We do not find any illegality in the said clause of the scheme which provides for reimbursement of fees directly in the account of the students. … However, there seems to some force in the contention of the petitioner that the fees when remitted to the account of the students, most often it is utilized by the students for its own purposes and is remitted only at the time of examination when the college has no option but to withhold admit cards for want of payment of fees”, it further noted.

The Court said that no instance was pointed out to the High Court where students in private medical college of the Petitioner have pocketed the fees and not deposited to the College at all, all that was argued that the fees was paid by student with delay; however, this would require some directions in the matter.

“The other issue raised was that as per clause 4.1 of the MMJKY Scheme-2018 if a student fails in a single year he would be out of purview of the scheme. We cannot lose sight of the fact that there may be genuine contingencies like a student falling ill at the time of admission, meeting with an accident at the time of admission or any other contingencies on account of which either he cannot take the examination or fails in the examination though he may be meritorious”, it also noted.

The Court said that otherwise there is no reason why a student having merit would leave course in mid-way even when he is being funded by the State Government and does not have to bear the fees itself; therefore, some directions are needed on this issue also.

“The third issue raised was matter of late remittance of fees. It is brought on record that there have been late remittances of fees since a long time and it is admitted by counsel for State before us that in case of petitioner even on 17.02.2025 for the session 2023-24 almost 40% of the fees is balance to be paid and no amount has been paid at all for the session 2024-25. We note that the private medical colleges have to bear their expenses from their own resources and late payment of fees would harm and damage their interest to some extent and some directions needs to be issued in that matter also”, it remarked.

Directions

The Court issued the following directions as to the legality of MMMVY and MMJKY Schemes –

(i) The students would not come out of purview of the scheme as per clause 4.1 automatically and once the student passes the next examination, the State would be required to take note of the representation to be submitted by the students through the college mentioning the reasons on account of which he failed in a particular examination and if the reasons are found to be genuine like accident, illness or death in the family etc. or the like unforeseen situations, then his coverage under the Scheme shall be continued.

(ii) The State shall ensure remittance of first year fees within three months of close of admission for that particular year and ensure remittance of fees of succeeding years within three months of declaration of result of having passed previous year and having received information from the college concerned about the student having started to attend classes of the next year.

(iii) So far as the issue of fees being remitted directly in the bank account of the students is concerned, the aforesaid system has already been upheld as to be reasonable. However, to smoothen out the difficulties faced in application of the said scheme, the fees would be remitted in a joint account to be opened by the students along with the institution which would be e-Aadhar verified (of the student) and debits from the said account would not be permitted to the students but only be permitted to the institution and the said account would not be enabled for online transactions and UPI transactions, nor issued with ATM/Debit cards.

Accordingly, the High Court dismissed the Petition, upheld the validity of the impugned Schemes, and issued necessary directions.

Cause Title- H.K. Kalchuri Educational Trust and Others v. The State of Madhya Pradesh and Others (Case Number: WRIT PETITION No. 14145 of 2017)

Appearance:

Petitioners: Advocates Siddharth Radhe Lal Gupta and Aryan Urmaliya.

Respondents: DAG B.D. Singh, Advocates Dheerendra Mishra, and Mihir Lunawat.

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