Private MBBS Fees in Meghalaya: Caps and Capitation Ban

Your child cleared NEET, a private medical institution in Meghalaya has offered a seat, and the admission office is asking for a figure that covers several years at once plus something described as a development or donation payment. Since 31 October 2025 there is a State Act that speaks to exactly those two demands, and it answers both in your favour.

• No more than one year of fees at a time. Section 5(3) ends with a flat prohibition: no Private Medical institution shall collect a fee amounting to more than one year's fee from a candidate. A demand for the full course cost upfront runs straight into that sentence.
• Your fee is frozen for your whole course. Also in section 5(3): the fee determined shall be applicable to a candidate admitted in that academic year and shall not be revised till the completion of his course in that college. Approved fee structures otherwise bind institutions for three years, after which an institution is at liberty to apply for revision.
• Capitation fee is the thing being regulated. The Act defines Capitation Fee as fee charged beyond the regular tuition and official fee. Section 5(1)(b) requires the Fee Regulatory Committee to verify whether a proposed fee is justified and does not amount to profiteering or charging of capitation fee.
• The fee is not the college's to decide alone. Section 5(1)© empowers the Committee to approve the fee structure or determine some other fee, and section 5(3) makes the finally approved structure binding on all private medical institutions including those under private universities.

Section 4(1) requires the Government to constitute, by Gazette notification, a Fee Regulatory Committee for fixation of fees chargeable from students admitted to MBBS in private medical institutions including institutes under private universities.

Section 4(2) fixes who sits on it, and the composition is the reason the body has some independence:

Section 5(4) then bars anyone associated with any private medical institution from being a member. Section 5(5) sets a two year term for nominated members. Section 5(7) allows removal for conduct unbecoming of a member, but only after an opportunity of being heard.

Section 5(1)(a) is the provision with a date in it. The Committee may require institutions to place before it the proposed fee structure with all relevant documents and books of accounts for scrutiny well in advance of the academic year, and not later than 31st December of the previous academic year.

Section 5(2) gives it teeth. For the purpose of any inquiry, it has all the powers of a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 in respect of summoning and enforcing the attendance of any witness and examining him on oath, discovery and production of documents, reception of evidence on affidavits, and issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses.

Section 9(1) lists what the Committee must weigh when determining fees: the location of the institution, the cost of land and building, available infrastructure and equipment, expenditure on faculty, administration and maintenance, the reasonable profit required for the growth and development of the institution, and any other relevant factor. Section 9(2) requires the institution to be given a reasonable opportunity to put its views in writing first.

Section 9(3) covers the gap period: until the Fee Regulatory Committee is in place, the State Government may in public interest prescribe a provisional fee structure through some other committee, provided the fee is fixed under sections 9(1) and 9(2) within ninety days.

Section 8(1) sets the structure plainly. A private medical institution including an institute under a private university may reserve up to fifty percent of the total sanctioned intake as Management Quota seats, and that is exclusive of fifteen percent of the sanctioned intake which may be separately earmarked for the NRI Quota, with statutory reservations as determined by the State Government.

Section 7 governs who is eligible. Eligibility criteria are as determined and notified by the National Medical Commission and the National Commission for Indian System from time to time. Section 7(2) requires admission to be made on the basis of the inter-se merit of candidates determined in accordance with NEET. Section 7(3) applies the State reservation and domicile policy to Government quota seats.

Section 8(2) ties reservation to the State's existing policy notified vide No. PER.222/71/138 dated 12 January 1972.

Section 3(4) puts counselling and seat allocation with the Meghalaya State Counselling Authority, whose composition section 6(2) fixes with the Director of Health Services, Medical Education and Research as Chairperson and the Additional Director of Health Services as Member Secretary.

Section 10 is the complaint machinery, and it has a deadline.

1. Where to complain. Section 10(1): the State Government appoints, by notification, a Nodal Officer not below the rank of Joint Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, for entertaining complaints about contravention of the Act or any notification under it.
2. You are not the only trigger. Section 10(2) lets the State Government take suo motu notice of a contravention.
3. The enquiry. Section 10(3): the State Government may cause an enquiry by an officer not below the rank of Joint Secretary, and may direct the complainant to furnish additional information or an affidavit, or take such action as it deems appropriate, or file the complaint if it is vexatious, anonymous or pseudonymous.
4. Sixty days. Section 10(4): a summary procedure shall be followed and the enquiry shall be completed within a period of sixty days.
5. The Nodal Officer's powers. Section 10(5): powers of a civil court to access, obtain and scrutinise the records of the institution, and to summon any person or relevant official record.
6. The consequence for the college. Section 3(6): where the State Government determines a violation, it may recommend to the appropriate State or Central authority the withdrawal of the essentiality certificate, affiliation, permission or recognition of the institution.

Note what is not in the Act as published: there is no fine or imprisonment provision attached to overcharging. The sanction is regulatory rather than penal, which is why the section 10 complaint and the section 3(6) recommendation are the levers that matter.

The single most useful document is the approved fee structure itself, because it is what the college is bound by.

1. A copy of the fee structure approved for the academic year .........
   for ......... Private Medical Institution under section 5(3) of the
   Meghalaya Private Medical Institution Including Institutes Under
   Private University Act, 2025, and the date of that approval.
2. A copy of the Gazette notification constituting the Fee Regulatory
   Committee under section 4(1), and the names of its present members.
3. Whether the said institution submitted its proposed fee structure
   with books of accounts by 31st December as required by section
   5(1)(a); if not, the action taken.
4. The name and designation of the Nodal Officer appointed under
   section 10(1), and the number of complaints received and disposed
   of in the last one year.
5. A copy of the seat matrix for the said institution showing
   Government quota, Management Quota and NRI Quota seats.

Address it to the Public Information Officer of the Health and Family Welfare Department, pay the fee shown in the Meghalaya RTI fee schedule, and track the thirty day clock under section 7 of the RTI Act. The AI RTI Drafter will format it, the RTI Timeline Calculator runs the deadline, and the First Appeal Builder handles a non-reply. The RTI Playbook covers the escalation route.

Do this before paying, not after. An approved fee structure in your hand converts a negotiation into a comparison.

Section 5(3) says no Private Medical institution shall collect a fee amounting to more than one year's fee from a candidate. Ask for the approved fee structure under which the demand is being made, in writing, and put the section to them.

Not for you. Section 5(3) provides that the fee determined shall be applicable to a candidate admitted to an institution in that academic year and shall not be revised till completion of his course in that college. The approved structure separately binds institutions for three years, after which the institution may apply for a revision that would affect later batches.

The Act defines Capitation Fee as fee charged beyond the regular tuition and official fee. Section 5(1)(b) requires the Fee Regulatory Committee to check that a proposed fee is justified and does not amount to profiteering or the charging of a capitation fee, so anything outside the approved structure is the thing the Act is aimed at.

Up to fifty percent of the total sanctioned intake under section 8(1), exclusive of a further fifteen percent that may be separately earmarked for NRI quota, with statutory reservations as determined by the State Government.

A Nodal Officer not below the rank of Joint Secretary in the Health and Family Welfare Department, appointed under section 10(1). Section 10(4) requires the enquiry to follow a summary procedure and to be completed within sixty days. Under section 10(5) that officer has civil court powers to obtain and scrutinise the college's records.

Under section 3(6), where the State Government determines that an institution has violated the Act, it may recommend to the appropriate State or Central Government authority the withdrawal of the essentiality certificate, affiliation, permission or recognition. The Act as published carries no separate fine or imprisonment for overcharging.

• The Meghalaya Private Medical Institution Including Institutes Under Private University Regulation of Admission, Fixation of Fees and Reservation Act, 2025, Meghalaya Act No. 18 of 2025, assent of the Governor 28 October 2025, published in the Gazette of Meghalaya Extraordinary dated 31 October 2025 vide No. LL B 67/2024/4. Full text on India Code at indiacode.gov.in
• The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, powers applied by section 5(2)
• The Right to Information Act, 2005, sections 6 and 7, full text at RTI Act 2005 on RTI Wiki

• How to apply for MBBS admission in India
• Check a medical college NMC approval before you enrol
• NMC removes the 150 MBBS seat cap
• MBBS intern stipend: NMC fines colleges
• Meghalaya RTI guide

Reviewed by Dr. Shrawan Kumar Pathak. This page is general legal information, not legal advice. Statutory text quoted from Meghalaya Act No. 18 of 2025 as published in the Gazette of Meghalaya and available on India Code. Whether the Fee Regulatory Committee has been constituted by notification, and the fee structure approved for any given institution or year, were not verified here, so ask the Department for the current approved structure.