Pune: The Bombay High Court has allowed the Indian Law Society’s (ILS) Law College to participate in the 2026-27 admission process while hearing its dispute with Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) over fees. However, the court has directed that any amount collected over the university-approved fee must be kept in an escrow account until the final order.HC asks Law College to file fresh fee proposalA division bench of Justices RI Chagla and Farhan P Dubash passed the ad-interim order on June 29 while hearing a writ petition filed by the ILS and another petitioner challenging SPPU’s order fixing the “other fees” at ₹4,340 for the academic year 2026-27.“The amount proposed by the petitioners for the ‘other fees’, i.e. over and above the sum of ₹4,340 (approved vide the impugned order for academic year 2026-27), upon it being paid by the students, shall be deposited in an escrow account as designated by the petitioners and shall remain deposited till the hearing and final disposal of the petition. In the event the excess amount is not approved by the fee fixation committee and the said decision is upheld by this court, the excess amount shall be refunded to the students,” the HC bench stated in its order.The petitioners argued that they had been charging around ₹36,790 as “other fees” in previous academic years and had submitted a proposal in February 2024 seeking an upward revision for academic years 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25. They contended that instead of deciding on that proposal, the university issued an order fixing the fee at ₹4,340 for 2026-27.SPPU opposed the plea, arguing that the institution had no approval to charge ₹36,790 and that under Section 101(7) of the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016, “other fees” can be charged only after approval by the university’s academic council following recommendations of the fee fixation committee.After hearing both sides, the court observed that there was no approval permitting ILS to charge the higher amount and that the norms had not been followed. At the same time, the bench noted that the university’s order fixing fees for 2026-27 had gone beyond the institution’s pending proposal, which related only to earlier academic years.As an interim arrangement, the court directed ILS to submit a fresh application to SPPU’s fee fixation committee within two weeks, seeking approval for the proposed “other fees”. The committee has been directed to decide the application within four weeks of receiving it.The court further directed the college to inform the State Common Entrance Test (CET) cell that its proposed “other fees” are subject to approval by the fee fixation committee and the final outcome of the writ petition. This disclosure must also be included in the admission brochure for the 2026-27 academic year.The interim order applies to both the three-year LLB and five-year BA LLB programmes offered by ILS Law College. The matter has been posted for compliance on August 24.