The Kerala government has given strict instructions to self-financing private medical and dental colleges in the State that, in accordance with the order of the National Medical Commission (NMC), they can collect the course fee only for a period of four-and-a-half years for this year’s and the next year’s admissions, Health Minister K. Muraleedharan has said.

Mr. Muraleedharan said the decision was taken at a meeting which was convened recently to restructure the course fee for MBBS and BDS courses in private self-financing colleges

He was replying to a calling attention motion moved by Xavier Chittilappilly in the Assembly on Tuesday (June 30, 2026) about several private self-financing colleges collecting course fee for five years, even after the NMC had directed that fees be collected only for the course period of four-and-a-half years.

The Minister said that despite the NMC’s order that the excess fees collected from students be returned, many private medical colleges had refused to comply with the directive.

Mr. Muraleedharan said the government had received several memorandums from people about the issue and that he himself chaired a meeting on June 16, when the private medical and dental college managements were asked to follow the NMC’s directives.

However, private self-financing medical colleges later filed a petition in the High Court against the NMC order. He said that in a petition filed by Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC) Medical College, Kolenchery, the High Court on June 19 granted a stay of the NMC order.

The petitioner also secured an order allowing the MOSC Medical College secretary to continue collecting the fee that had been fixed earlier by the fee regulatory committee, for the time being, Mr. Muraleedharan said.

The government will take a call on returning the excess course fee to students on the basis of the High Court’s decision, the Minister said.

He said the government will also take a favourable decision regarding another directive by the NMC that private self-financing medical colleges should pay a stipend to house surgeons on a par with the amount that house surgeons in government medical colleges are paid.