In a big financial jolt to medical aspirants and their families, the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, has issued a notice stating that MBBS students admitted against the 75 government quota seats at Adesh Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (AIMSR), Bathinda, will now have to pay the full course fee of Rs 64.71 lakh — the same amount applicable to management quota candidates — instead of the substantially lower fee notified by the state government.AIMSR has a total of 150 MBBS seats, comprising 75 under the government quota, 53 under the management quota and 22 under the NRI quota.As per the fee structure notified by the Department of Medical Education and Research (DMER) for the 2026-27 session, government quota students were to pay Rs 25.22 lakh for the full course, while management quota students were to pay Rs 64.71 lakh and NRI quota students USD 1.25 lakh.However, in its notice issued on Saturday, the BFUHS stated that AIMSR would collect the management quota fee even from government quota candidates, in compliance with an interim order passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on August 4 in a petition filed by the institute.The university had approached the High Court contending that the state’s appropriation of seats as “government quota” in an unaided private institution, along with a steeply discounted fee for such seats, was legally impermissible.Pending final adjudication, the High Court permitted the institute to charge government quota students the same fee as management quota students, subject to the condition that the differential amount be deposited by the institute, within two weeks of completion of the admission process, in a fixed deposit in its own name, with a copy of the fixed deposit receipt furnished to the Medical Education Department.The FDR is not to be encashed till further orders of the court. Students are to be clearly informed at the time of admission that the lower fee notified for government quota seats is itself under legal challenge, and that any differential amount already paid would remain subject to the outcome of the litigation.Now, a government quota student, who under the department’s own notification would have paid Rs 25,22,000 for the entire MBBS course, will now have to shell out Rs 64,71,000 — an additional Rs 39,49,000 — placing government and management quota candidates on an equal financial footing for now.