New Delhi, Mar 20 (DHNS): The Union Cabinet on Friday approved a key piece of legislation that seeks to weed out malpractices from educational institutions and make ''accepting capitation fee'' a ''cognisable offence that can be tried in criminal courts.'' 

The bill lists out a set of 25 malpractices, including accepting capitation fee, which can be tried either in civil or criminal court depending on the nature of the complaints.

While in the civil jurisdiction, educational malpractices will attract a fine of Rs 50 lakh and imprisonment of three years, the punishment for criminal complaints will be in the range of Rs 50,000 to Rs 3  lakh and imprisonment of one month to one year.

“We are very serious about this legislation. The bane of capitation fee is destroying education in India,” Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said.  The new bill for prohibition and punishment of adoption of unfair practices in technical and medical educational institutions and universities may be introduced in the second half of the budget session beginning April 12.

The proposed legislation will also look into misleading advertisements.  If the institutions do not disclose all information about the fee structure in their prospectus, it can come under the purview of this bill.

Giving details of unfair practices in educational institutions, Sibal said many institutions  have neither adequate and qualified faculty nor the infrastructure required for higher education. “The prospectus do not match with reality,” he said.

Other educational malpractices include demanding donations from students, not issuing receipts against payments made by students, misleading advertisement in the media with an intention to cheat and forcible withholding of certificates or other documents of students.

Besides the malpractice bill, the Union Cabinet approved two other laws on setting up  education tribunals at the Centre and state level as well as mandatory accreditation of higher education institutions and creating a regulatory authority for the purposes. Together, the three bills are important parts of the government’s reform process in the education sector.

Education reforms

* The Bill lists out 25 instances of malpractice including accepting capitation fee

* Malpractice in civil jurisdiction will attract a fine of Rs 50 lakh and imprisonment of 3 years

* Punishment for criminal complaints will be between Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakh along with imprisonment of one month to one year