Govt assures HC panel about office, staff within a month

Updated on: Friday, November 18, 2011

The city government today assured the Delhi High Court that it will provide within four weeks all infrastructure including office space and staff to Justice Anil Dev Singh committee, set up to ascertain the legality of a 2009 notification allowing private schools to hike tuition fees.

On the government's assurance, a bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Siddharth Mridul granted it a month and fixed December 16 to hear the matter.

Appearing for the Directorate of Education, counsel Avnish Ahlawat informed the bench that the government would provide the infrastructure to the committee.

Ahlawat's assurance came after petitioner's counsel Ashok Aggarwal informed the court that Justice Singh had written a letter early this month to the education department to provide him office space and staff to run it, besides a chartered accountant and an official website with e-mail ID but nothing has been done so far.

In August, the high court appointed the panel headed by Justice Singh and also comprising noted CA J S Kochar and an educationist, who was to be nominated by the Chief Secretary.

The committee was assigned to examine the validity of the city government's February 2009 notification permitting private unaided schools to hike their tuition fees.

The order had come on a petition filed by Delhi Abhibhavak Mahasangh, a parents body, alleging that despite the schools having surplus money, the government allowed them to hike the tuition fees.

The Delhi Cabinet had approved the hike ranging from a minimum of Rs 100 to a maximum of Rs 500 in the schools to ease their financial burden due to hike in teachers salaries as per Sixth Pay Commission recommendations.

As per the government's February notification, any school which was charging a monthly fee of Rs 500, will be allowed to hike Rs 100.

Likewise, any school charging a monthly fee of Rs 1,000 will be allowed to effect a maximum hike of Rs 200.

Schools with a monthly fee of Rs 1,500 were allowed to hike tuition fees by Rs 300 and those having a fee structure ranging from above Rs 1,500 to Rs 2000 were allowed to hike it by a sum not more than Rs 400.

The rest of the schools with monthly fees of more than Rs 2,000 were allowed by the notification to hike it by only Rs 500.

Govt assures HC panel about office, staff within a month

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