Patna, Jan. 11: Patna High Court today reserved its judgment on a number of petitions challenging the validity of Bihar Coaching Institute (Control and Regulation) Act, 2010.

The act aims to fix the minimum criteria to run the institute, virtually tightening the noose around the mushrooming institutes in the state capital.

A division bench comprising Justice Shiva Kirti Singh and Justice Ravi Ranjan reserved the judgment after hearing both sides, including those of the association of coaching institutes.

Stating that the certain provisions of Bihar Coaching Institute (Control & Regulation) Act 2010 were not acceptable, one of the petitioner’s counsel Gyanendra Kumar Singh contended that introducing a registration fee of Rs 5,000 was a big amount for those who run small coaching institutes having five to 10 students. Singh added most of the coaching institutes in the capital fell in this category.

The government has fixed exorbitant penalty of Rs 25,000 for violation of provisions or criteria in the Act, said a source. Some of the norms are related to maintaining minimum infrastructure and academic standards to run the institute. The amount of fine goes up to Rs 1 lakh for second time violators. Also, according to the provisions of the Act, only a person with a graduation degree can run the institute.

According to the petitioners, this would rule out students of Class X or Class XII or those pursuing graduation degrees from taking private tuitions. The petitions also objected to the fact that no representative of the coaching institutes had been included in the regulatory committee that the state government had constituted to keep tabs on coaching institutes.

The petitioners also contended the provision in the Act that an officer of the rank of a deputy superintendent could inspect the coaching institutes any time. Singh also said that the provision of the Act to provide 1square metre space for each student at the institute would push coaching centres to extend area and hike fees. This would only add more financial burden of parents and students.

Defending the Act, additional advocate-general Lalit Kishore said the law has been framed to regulate the mushrooming coaching institutes which charge exorbitant fee and also to provide better facilities to the students.