Bihar Private College Fee Law 2026

You are holding an admission letter from a private medical, engineering or agriculture college in Bihar, and the fee demand on it is large. Before you pay, the useful question is not what the law says but which body actually fixed that number. Bihar passed a new fee law in April 2026, and it is not that body, because the law has not been switched on. A pre-existing ad-hoc committee still does the work. Here is how to check whose figure you are paying.

The changeover is not triggered by a date. Section 4 sub-section 7 keys it to an event: the new statutory Committee being constituted.

The preamble records that the ad-hoc body was set up to oversee compliance of Supreme Court orders for medical and technical education. Note the last row: nothing it approved gets torn up later.

The Bihar Gazette Extraordinary of 2 April 2026 carries Bihar Act 10 of 2026, and its masthead records that the Governor assented that day. The gazette also prints the Government of Bihar's own English text, published by the Governor's authority as the authorised English version under Article 348 clause 3 of the Constitution, so every quotation here is that text, not a translation of the Hindi.

Section 1 names the Act, extends it to the whole of Bihar, and adds the limb that decides the rest:

It shall come into force on such date as the State Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, notify.

Assent is not commencement. At the time of writing, no commencement notification for this Act could be located. One would appear on Bihar's own e-Gazette portal at https://egazette.bihar.gov.in, which is live and carries gazette and notification searches. Nothing turned up there or in general searching. That says what could be found, not that nothing exists, so ask the department yourself.

Worth knowing now, because they tell you what to ask for later.

• The college files, and can be overruled. Section 5 sub-section 3 clause a lets the Committee call for the proposed fee structure with the books of accounts “at least three months before commencement of the session”. Clause b lets it check whether the proposal “is justified”; clause c lets it approve that structure or “determine other fee structure”.
• Two steps, not one. Section 5 sub-section 4 sends the determined structure to the Respective Department, which notifies it. Section 5 sub-section 6 then bars any fee other than the fee so notified, and bars collecting at one time “more than one term fee from a student in an academic year”.
• Your fee is frozen. Section 5 sub-section 5 makes a notified structure binding for three years, or for the period a competent statutory body permits, and says the fee applies to a student admitted that year and “shall not be revised till the completion of his/her professional course in that institution”.
• What counts as fee. Section 6 sub-section 2 covers tuition, library, laboratory, computer, one-time caution money, examination and hostel fees. Section 6 sub-section 1 sets the factors, down to “the reasonable surplus required for the growth and development” of the institution.
• Capitation is defined broadly. Section 2 clause d catches any amount “whether in cash or in kind paid or collected or received directly or indirectly in addition to the fees determined under this Act”, and section 8, headed “No capitation fee”, prohibits it.

A caution on scope. Section 2 clause a gives “Medical, Engineering and Technology, Computer application, Education, Agriculture, Veterinary Science etc.” only as examples of academic disciplines, inside a definition. Section 2 clause j defines professional courses as those “notified as a professional course by the State government”, and section 7 requires that notification. The example list shows the intended reach; the section 7 notification will show the real one.

Section 4 sub-section 1 fixes nine seats, chaired by “An eminent educationist or A retired Government Officer” of at least Principal Secretary rank, with ex-officio members from the Health, Higher Education, and Science and Technology departments. Sub-section 5 bars anyone “associated with a private aided or unaided educational institution”. Sub-section 3 sets a three-year term, extendable by up to two more years or until the member turns 75.

If you have read our page on private MBBS fees and the capitation ban in Meghalaya, do not carry its rules across the map.

• Meghalaya's Act is about MBBS in private medical institutions. Bihar's reaches every discipline notified under section 7.
• Meghalaya's committee is chaired by a retired High Court judge, Bihar's by an educationist or retired Principal Secretary rank officer.
• Meghalaya's committee has civil court powers under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. Bihar's is given none.
• Meghalaya has a Nodal Officer and a sixty-day enquiry deadline. Bihar's section 9 sets neither.
• Meghalaya caps management and NRI quota seats. Bihar's Act has no seat-quota provision.
• Meghalaya bars collecting more than one year's fee at a time. Bihar bars more than one term fee.
• Meghalaya's Act is already operating. Bihar's commencement notification could not be found.

The family and the figures are illustrative, not a reported case. Ranjan Kumar of Darbhanga has a daughter admitted to a private engineering college in Bihar for 2026-27, and the college wants ₹18,00,000 covering all four years before the seat is confirmed.

If the Act were operating and a structure notified, section 5 sub-section 6 would answer him twice over: nothing above the notified figure, and not more than one term fee at a time. Neither helps him today, because neither is in force.

What helps today is paper. He asks the college in writing for the fee structure the ad-hoc committee approved for his daughter's course and year, with the date. If it will not produce that, he files the RTI below. The figure quoted at an admission desk and the figure a committee sanctioned are not always the same, and only one sits on a government file.

Section 9 is administrative, not criminal. Where the Respective Department is satisfied after due inquiry that an institution took capitation fee, or fees above what was determined, it may direct refund of the excess, recommend reduction or non-allocation of seats, withdraw the no objection or essentiality certificate, or recommend other action to the statutory authority or the university. The institution gets a hearing first.

There is no fine and no imprisonment for overcharging anywhere in the Act. The word prosecution appears once, in section 10, protecting officials who act in good faith. The levers are money back, seats and recognition, not a criminal court. Separately, section 3 sub-section 2 makes an admission in contravention of the Act invalid.

The Act defines the “Respective Department” as the one that administratively handles your course, and gives ex-officio seats to Health, Higher Education, and Science and Technology, so those three are the addresses worth trying. Section 15 refers to those ad-hoc committees as constituted by the Health Department, so the older files sit there. New to this? Start with how to file an RTI, then file an RTI online.

Ask the Public Information Officer for:

1. Whether Bihar Act 10 of 2026 has been brought into force under section 1, and if so the number and date of the notification, with a copy.
2. Whether the section 4 Committee has been constituted, with the constituting order and the names of its members.
3. Whether courses have been notified under section 7 and rules made under section 11, with copies.
4. The fee structure approved for the named college and course for the current academic year, the authority that approved it, and the date.
5. The order constituting the ad-hoc Admission Monitoring Committee and Education Fee Fixation Committee, and the minutes approving that year's fee.

The AI RTI Drafter will word these. If a fee structure comes back without its approval date, file a first appeal under section 19 with the First Appeal Builder. Answering a question you did not ask is a recognisable pattern, and The RTI Playbook covers closing that gap, as do our practical guides.

No commencement notification could be located at the time of writing. Section 1 says the Act starts on a date the State Government notifies in the official Gazette, and assent on 2 April 2026 is not that notification. Notifications issue quietly, so confirm by RTI.

The ad-hoc Admission Monitoring Committee and Education Fee Fixation Committee, which the Act's own preamble records was already established to oversee compliance of Supreme Court orders. Section 4 sub-section 7 says it continues to operate until the new Committee is constituted.

Not under this Act. Section 8 prohibits capitation fee and section 2 clause d defines it broadly, but section 9, the enforcement provision, is administrative: refund of the excess, a recommendation on seats, withdrawal of the no objection or essentiality certificate, or other recommended action. No fine or imprisonment clause appears anywhere.

Wider than medical, but not automatically. Section 2 clause a lists Medical, Engineering and Technology, Computer application, Education, Agriculture and Veterinary Science only as examples of academic disciplines, and section 7 leaves the operative list to a State Government notification of professional courses.

Its preamble names two: Islamic Academy of Education and Others vs State of Karnataka and Others, reported at (2003) 6 SCC 697, and P.A. Inamdar and Others vs State of Maharashtra and Ors., reported at (2005) 6 SCC 537. The Act says it follows the principles laid down there. This page cites them only because the statute does.

• Bihar Gazette Extraordinary, 2 April 2026, publishing Bihar Act 10 of 2026 with the Government of Bihar's authorised English text. Every section, quotation and committee seat here comes from it: https://prsindia.org/files/bills_acts/acts_states/bihar/2026/Act10of2026BR.pdf
• Bihar e-Gazette portal, the official route where a commencement notification under section 1 would appear. Live at the time of writing, and no notification for this Act surfaced in searching: https://egazette.bihar.gov.in
• Our page on the Meghalaya private medical institution fee statute, used only for the comparison above: https://righttoinformation.wiki/meghalaya-private-mbbs-fees-capitation-ban-act-2025

Searching by name is fiddly: the PRS cover page says “Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fees”, while section 1 of the Act says “Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee”. Try both.