If the state Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama is to be believed, the bill has piqued the interest of some other states as well as the Centre.
"The Governor has signed the bill....It will become an act once we notify it in coming days," he said.
"After we introduced it, states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra sought copies. Just yesterday the Union HRD Minister too sought a copy of the Bill. It is possible that Centre is mulling to introduce such a law for the benefit of middle-class citizens," the minister told reporters.
Its objective is to control "exorbitant fees" charged by private schools.
More From This Section
The bill empowers the government to constitute four Fee Regulatory Committees for four zones of the state "for the purpose of determination of fee for admission to any standard or course of study in self-financed schools".
The fee structure proposed in the bill for primary, secondary and higher-secondary schools is Rs 15,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 27,000 per year, respectively.
The schools wanting to charge more than the specified fee will have to approach the Fee Regulatory Committee.
The committee can, on its own, initiate inquiry against any school found to be charging excess fee.
It can take penal action too, such as ordering refund of twice the amount of excess fee, imposing up to Rs 5 lakh fine for the first offence, Rs 5 to Rs 10 lakh for the second offence and cancellation of registration of the school for the third offence.
The bill also provides for a Fee Revision Committee, to be chaired by a retired judge of the High Court. Schools can approach it for revision if they are not happy with the order of Fee Regulatory Committees. Orders passed by the Fee Revision Committee shall be final.