In order to curb the continued practice of some engineering college seats being blocked by students in private colleges, the Karnataka government has passed a notification amending the Karnataka Educational Institutions (Prohibition of capitation Fee) Act, 1984. The draft was published on October 1 and will be finalized by October 16, after any relevant changes suggested by the public to the Principal Secretary to Government, Education Department (Higher Education) have been incorporated.
The notification said, “Any objection or suggestion which may be received by the State Government from any person with respect to the said draft before the period specified above will be considered by the State Government. Objections and Suggestions may be addressed to the Principal Secretary to Government, Education Department (Higher Education), MS Building, Bengaluru-560001.”
The government has proposed four major changes to the Act, which are:
1. If a student fails to attend classes after accepting a government seat in a private college, they have to pay five times the seat-booking fee in addition to forfeiting the booking fee as penalty.
2. Private institutes will be held responsible for not informing the Karnataka Examination Authority about vacant seats in their colleges, which might arise due to students not attending the course after blocking a seat. In that case, the institution will have to pay a penalty of five times the fee.
3. Engineering colleges are to collect the original documents of the candidates at the time of admission and shall release them after obtaining the permission of the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA). Once the KEA ascertains that the student will be attending the course, the documents will be released and the student will not be liable to pay the penalty fee.
4. In case a student is liable to pay the fines, the institution has to collect the penalty amount and transfer it to the KEA within a week after receiving it. Otherwise, the engineering colleges themselves must pay the penalty to the KEA.