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The Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions and Fees) Act, 2015

(Maharashtra Act No. 28 of 2015)

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Chapter I

Preliminary

(a) "Admissions Regulating Authority" means the Authority constituted under section 7 for regulating the admissions in Unaided Private Professional Educational Institutions and conducting CETs;

(b) "appropriate authority" means the authorities declared by the State or Central Government which approve and regulate the professional courses or educational disciplines;

(c) "Centralized Admission Process (CAP)" means the centralized process of admission carried out by the competent authority through single window system in a transparent manner for admitting the students for various professional courses in educational institutions ;

(d) "Common Entrance Test (CET)" means the entrance test conducted for determination of merit of the candidates by Centralized Admission Process (CAP) for the purpose of admission to professional education courses through a single window system;

(e) "Competent Authority" means the Commissioner of State CET appointed by the Government under section 10, for conducting CET through CAP for the admissions into Private Professional Educational Institutions ;

(f) "Director" means the Director of Higher Education or, of Technical Education or, of Medical Education and Research or, of any other Directorate or Commissioner of any Commissionarate of the State Government, entrusted with the task of supervision of the Private Professional Educational Institution;

(g) "Fees" means the amount fixed as fee which includes tuition fee, library fee, gymkhana fee, examination fee, development fee or amount payable for any curricular or co-curricular activities, laboratory fee, information brochure fee and any other amount collected from the students, by whatsoever name called, and accepted in whichever manner, that is made payable to a Private Professional Educational Institution, for whatever purpose, by any candidate admitted to a professional course at such institution, but excludes any charges payable towards use of any optional hostel accommodation, mess charges and Students Insurance Fees;

(h) "Fees Regulating Authority" means the authority constituted under section 11 for determination and regulation of fee in unaided institutions;

(i) "Foreign Student" means a student who is not a citizen of India;

(j) "Government" or "State Government" means the Government of Maharashtra;

(k) "lateral entry" means admission of students in second year of the course against seats as per the guidelines of the appropriate authorities;

(l) "management" means the managing committee or the governing body, by whatever name called, of the Private Professional Educational Institution to which the affairs of such Institution are entrusted and where such affairs are entrusted to any person, by whatever name or designation called, includes such person;

(m) "Minority Educational Institution" means a Private Professional Educational Institution notified as such by the State Government, established and administered for and by the persons belonging to the minority community, domiciled in the State of Maharashtra, having right to do so under clause (1) of article 30 of the Constitution of India;

(n) "Non-Resident Indian (NRI)" means a person who is "not ordinarily resident" under sub-section (6) of section 6 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), and includes a person resident outside India under clause (w) of section 2 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (42 of 1999), and also includes his child or ward;

(o) "Person of Indian Origin (PIO)" means a person who is a citizen of a country other than India but who, at any time, was a citizen of India; or in whose case either parent or any grandparent was a citizen of India by virtue of the provisions of Part II of the Constitution of India or under the Citizenship Act, 1955 (57 of 1955);

(p) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;

(q) "Private Professional Educational Institution" means any college, school, institute, institution or other body, by whatever name called, conducting any professional course or courses approved or recognized by the appropriate authority and affiliated to any university, but shall not include,-

(i) any such institution established, maintained or administered by the Central Government, any State Government or any local authority;

(ii) institution declared to be a deemed university under section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 (3 of 1956); or

(iii) a university to which the provisions of the University Grants Commission (Establishment and Maintenance of Private Universities) Regulations, 2003 are applicable;

(r) "Professional Education" means any educational course of study declared and notified as such, from time to time by the Government which includes a course leading to the award of an Under Graduate or Post-Graduate degree, diploma, by whatever name called and recognized by the appropriate authority;

(s) "profiteering" means any amount accepted in cash or kind, directly or indirectly which is in excess of the fee approved as per the provisions of this Act;

(t) "regulations" means the regulations framed by the Regulating Authorities;

(u) "Regulating Authority" means the Admissions Regulating Authority under section 7 or the Fees Regulating Authority under section 11, as the case may be ;

(v) "sanctioned intake" means the total number of seats sanctioned or approved by the appropriate authority for admitting candidates in a single academic year in each professional course of study or discipline in a Private Professional Educational Institution at the appropriate level of entry;

(w) "Stake-holders" means the management, the students studying in the respective institution and their parents;

(x) "unaided institution" means Private Professional Educational Institution, which is not receiving aid or grant-in-aid from the Central Government, the State Government or the local authority;

(y) "University" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in clause (f) of section 2 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 (3 of 1956).

Chapter II

Regulation of Admissions

(a) admission to seats in a Private Professional Educational Institution excluding institutional quota declared by Government from time to time, shall be made on the basis of merit by following the procedure of Common Entrance Test (CET) conducted in the manner, as may be prescribed by rules:

(b) admissions to such institution shall be carried out by the competent authority through the Centralized Admission Process on the basis of Common Entrance Test (CET) and Centralized Admission Process (CAP);

(c) the Competent Authority shall supervise and guide the entire Centralized Admission Process in such manner as it may specify with a view to ensuring that the process is fair, transparent, merit-based and non-exploitative.

Chapter III

Admissions Regulating Authority and State Common Entrance Test Cell

(a)	a retired Judge of High Court or retired officer of the Government of the rank of Chief Secretary	Chairperson
(b)	an eminent educationist who has worked as Vice-Chancellor of University	Member
(c)	an expert of repute from the field of Professional Education	Member
(d)	the Registrar, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik	Member
(e)	the Director of Technical Education	Member
(f)	the Director of Higher Education	Member
(g)	the Member-Secretary of the Maharashtra Council of Agricultural Education and Research	Member
(h)	the Commissioner of State CET	Secretary.

(b) and (c) of sub-section (3) shall be made by the State Government.

(i) is holding any office, post or is in any way directly or indirectly connected or associated with any unaided institution;

(ii) has been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for an offence which, in the opinion of the Government, involves moral turpitude;

(iii) is an undischarged insolvent;

(iv) is of unsound mind and stands so declared by a Competent Court;

(v) has been removed or dismissed from the service of the Government or a body corporate owned or controlled by the Government;

(vi) has, in the opinion of the Government such financial or other interest as is likely to affect prejudicially the perforamance of the functions and the discharge of his duties as such Chairperson or a Member; or

(vii) has such other disqualifications as may be prescribed.

(i) conducting and monitoring CET through CET Cell established under this Act;

(ii) verification of admission proposals and final approval thereof;

(iii) cancellation of admission if found contrary to the provisions of this Act;

(iv) redressal of grievances from the Stake-holders.

(i) to adjudicate the dispute amongst the Stake-holders regarding admission of the students in the unaided institutions;

(ii) to prescribe its own procedure regarding scrutiny of admission proposals and grievance redressal mechanism as it deem fit;

(iii) to declare that the admission process of the unaided institution that is unfair, non-transparent and exploitative and therefore invalid, after giving a reasonable opportunity of being heard to those who are likely to be adversely affected by the decision of the Authority;

(iv) to recommend to the concerned affiliating University, Board or such other authority for withdrawal of affiliation or recognition of the Institution for admissions those are made in contravention of this Act.

(i) the summoning and enforcing the attendance of any witness and examining him on oath;

(ii) the discovery and production of any document;

(iii) the reception of evidence on affidavits;

(iv) the issue of commission for the examination of the witness.

(i) every unaided institution shall submit the ' admission-approval proposals ' to the concerned Directorate within fifteen days from the cut-off date of admission;

(ii) every institution shall submit such proposal certified by the concerned Directorate to the Admissions Regulating Authority within two months from the date of such certification;

(iii) every such proposal received from the Institution by Admissions Regulating Authority shall be scrutinized and approved before the 31st January of every year;

(iv) any grievance regarding admission may be admitted before the Authority and shall be decided within a fortnight and before the cut-off date for admission;

(v) the Admissions Regulating Authority shall have power to review its own order after recording the reasons therefor;

(vi) no act or proceeding of the Admissions Regulating Authority shall be deemed to be invalid by reason merely of any vacancy in, or any defect in the constitution thereof;

(vii) the Admissions Regulating Authority shall by regulations, prescribe its procedure regarding scrutiny of admission proposals and grievance redressal mechanism as it deem fit.

Chapter IV

Regulation of Fees

(a)	a retired Judge of High Court or retired officer of the Government of the rank of Chief Secretary	Chairperson
(b)	an eminent educationist who has worked as Vice-Chancellor of University	Member
(c)	a Chartered Accountant of repute who is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, for a period of not less than ten years	Member
(d)	a Cost Accountant of repute who is a Member of the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India for a period of not less than ten years, or a financial expert of repute	Member
(e)	an expert of repute from the field of Professional Education	Member
(f)	the Registrar, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik	Member
(g)	the Director of Technical Education	Member
(h)	the Director of Higher Education	Member
(i)	the Member-Secretary of the Maharashtra Council of Agricultural Education and Research	Member
(j)	an Officer of the State Government not below the rank of Joint Secretary.	Secretary.

(e) of sub-section (3) shall be appointed by the Government.

(i) to determine the reasonableness of fees levied by unaided institutions on the basis of the factors specified in section 15; and to verify whether the fees so levied does not amount to profiteering or charging of capitation fees within the meaning of clause (a) of section 2 of the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Prohibition of Capitation Fees) Act, 1987 ;

(ii) scrutiny and verification of fee proposals of the unaided institutions and final approval thereof ;

(iii) to evolve the mechanism for verification of infrastructure facilities and amenities and to undertake the verification of such facilities and amenities ;

(iv) to undertake research studies, at such intervals as the Fees Regulating Authority may deem fit, for determining the professional coursewise expenses required to be made per student, for the unaided institutions in accordance with the mandatory guidelines of the appropriate authority concerned; and

(v) to undertake measures for the redressal of grievances of the Stake-holders.

(i) scrutiny and verification of 'fee proposals' and final approval thereof ;

(ii) to evolve mechanism for verification of infrastructure facilities, amenities and verification thereof in unaided institutions;

(iii) redressal of grievances of the Stake-holders.

(i) the summoning and enforcing the attendance of any witness and examining him on oath ;

(ii) the discovery and production of any document;

(iii) the reception of evidence on affidavits;

(iv) the issue of commission for the examination of the witness.

(a) the Management of the Unaided Institution shall submit the details of the proposed fee alongwith the audited accounts of the preceding financial year, the proposed budget in respect of the current financial year and the relevant record and evidence to the Fees Regulating Authority for its approval not later than 31st October of previous academic year;

(b) in the event of non-submission of proposal for upward revision of fees to the Fees Regulating Authority within the time-limit specified by the Authority, the fees structure as approved by the Authority and applicable during the previous academic year shall continue to apply;

(c) the Fees Regulating Authority shall establish a separate scrutiny cell for the scrutiny of proposals submitted;

(d) after considering all the relevant factors, the Fees Regulating Authority shall approve the fees within a period of one hundred and twenty days from the date of receipt of the details of the proposed fee and communicate the details of the fee so approved;

(e) if the fee approved by the Fees Regulating Authority is not acceptable to the unaided institution, it may file review application with detail reasoning before the Fees Regulating Authority for reviewing its decision, within fifteen days from the date of communication. It shall be mandatory for the Fees Regulating Authority to decide such review application before the 31st March of every year and shall communicate its decision to the concerned institution accordingly;

(f) the Fees Regulating Authority may prescribe its procedure regarding scrutiny of fee proposals and grievance redressal mechanism as it deem fit.

(i) the location (Urban or Rural) of the institution;

(ii) the cost of land and building ;

(iii) minimum mandatorily required infrastructure or facilities, as specified by the appropriate authority ;

(iv) the expenditure proposed or incurred on the facilities and amenities that are not mandatory as per the guidelines of the appropriate authority ;

(v) available number of qualified regularly appointed teaching and non-teaching staff as per the prescribed norms of the appropriate authority ;

(vi) expenses on the prescribed salaries of the teaching and non-teaching staff ;

(vii) the expenditure on administration and the maintenance;

(viii) the reasonable revenue surplus required for growth and development of the institution with particular reference to the professional course conducted by it, which shall not be more than fifteen per cent. of educational revenue in the respective professional course or group of courses;

(ix) facilities provided by the Government, such as lease of land at concessional rates and use of its infrastructure, for the conduct of the professional courses;

(x) depreciation or contribution for asset replacement fund;

(xi) rent of building or usage charges;

(xii) incentives for quality enhancement, such as-

(a) faculty strength with Ph. D. qualifications and Research publications in International Journals and Patent filed by the institution;

(b) faculty training and placement of students;

(c) accreditation of eligible programmes or the Institute such as NBA, NABET, NAAC, etc.;

(xiii) rate of inflation;

(xiv) any other relevant factor, as may be determined by the Fees Regulating Authority.

(i) process fees payable by a Private Professional Educational Institution;

(ii) interest on deposits;

(iii) grants from the State Government, Central Government and the University Grants Commission and other Institutions (if any).

Chapter V

Accounts and Maintenance of Records of Authorities

Chapter VI

Penalties

(a) for the first contravention, which shall not be less than one lakh rupees but which may extend to five lakh rupees or twice the amount taken in excess of the fee as determined under this Act, whichever is higher;

(b) for the second or subsequent contravention, which shall not be less than two lakh rupees but which may extend to ten lakh rupees or twice the amount taken in excess of the fee as determined under this Act, whichever is higher.

Chapter VII

Miscellaneous