HC asks CAG to submit report on finance of unaided schools

Updated on: Saturday, July 03, 2010

The Delhi High Court today asked the Comptroller and Auditor General to place before it the report prepared last year after auditing the accounts of the
city's 25 private unaided schools including DPS R K Puram, Modern School Barakhamba Road and and Amity International.

A Division Bench of Justice A K Sikri and Justice Siddharth Mridul directed the CAG to produce the report by July 16 while hearing a petition filed by the parents
association challenging the city government's decision to allow private unaided schools to hike tuition and development fees.

Appearing for the parents' association, counsel Ashok Aggarwal submitted the CAG had prepared the report after auditing the financial records of the schools, which has been published by various newspapers recently. The counsel argued there was no need for hiking the tuition fees as the schools have surplus money in their
accounts as per the CAG report.

The Bench was hearing a PIL filed by Delhi Abhibhavak Sangh, Social Jurists, an NGO, and Faith Academy Parent's Association and sought quashing of the notification issued by the Department of Education on February 11 last year
permitting the schools to hike tuition and development fees with retrospective effect from January 1, 2006.

According to the notification, for every Rs 500 in tuition fees, there will be Rs 100 increase monthly. Seeking quashing of the notification, the petitioners said the decision of the Education Department Delhi is not rational or legal and the government allowed them to go for hike without examining the financial record of the schools as to whether such schools really required an increase in fees.

The Delhi government had constituted a committee headed by S L Bansal, a retired IAS officer, to examine the implications of 6th Pay Commission for recognised unaided schools and the Education Department relied on the committee's recommendation while issuing the notification for school fee hike.

The petitioners contended the committee should have invited objections from the parents before submitting the report to government.

HC asks CAG to submit report on finance of unaided schools

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