HC restrains schools from enhancing fee

Updated on: Wednesday, May 02, 2012

The Punjab and Haryana high ourt issued directions that no school would enhance the school fee in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, without the consent of the education boards to which the schools are affiliated.
  
The bench has also issued directions to ensure that no books other than NCERT were prescribed in Punjab schools.   

The bench, comprising Justice S K Mittal and Justice T P S  Mann, has held that schools must take the education boards into confidence before any fee hike.
  
The bench also directed that schools would submit their profit and loss statement for the past five years to the Central Board of Secondary Education, ICSE or Punjab School Education Board whereever they were affiliated with.
  
The bench also issued directions that no CBSE-affiliated school would prescribe the books published by those other than NCERT.
  
The directions were issued on three PILs filed on similar issues. One of the petitions had been filed by 10 students from Malerkotla while two other petitioners are city-based NGOs Anti Corruption and Crime Investigation Cell and All India Crime Preventing Society.
  
The petitioners referred to the directions of the Supreme Court in Modern School vs Union of India, which stated that each school would maintain the account on the principles of non business organisation.

Citing the example of fee hike by a school Sita Grammar School in Malerkotla, the petitioner stated that in academic session 2009, the school was charging fee that included admission fee of Rs 3500, annual charges of Rs 4500 besides quarterly tuition fee, computer fee, science fee, conveyance fee and building fund.
  
The fee was subsequently hiked in the following years. In academic year starting in 2012, the fee had been hiked to annual charges eleven thousand rupees, development fee two thousand rupees besides other fee charged at quarterly basis.
  
The petitioner said that as per calculation, in 2010, total amount of 1.08 crores rupees had been collected by the school as annual charges while the same was 1.87 crore rupees for the session in 2011.
  
This is besides the students being forced to buy stationary and school dress from school shops.
  
The bench has issued directions to Punjab School Education Board, ICSE and CBSE to file affidavit about the schools in their jurisdiction and also have all the schools file profit and loss account for the past five years.
  
The bench also asked the boards to file a response as to how it was being ensured that teachers were getting salaries as per norms and the Right to Education Act was being followed by these schools.

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