Pvt school fee hike: No benefit of court orders to schools which did not move HC

The Delhi High Court Monday said the private unaided schools, which did not approach the court or sought the government's approval to hike fees, will not get the benefit of its orders on the issue.

A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta asked the Action Committee Unaided Recognised Private Schools, which represents over 300 such institutions, to give a list of the schools who have applied to the Delhi government for approval to hike fees or have moved the court for the same.

"Those who have not come to court or sought approval, why should they get any indulgence?" the bench said, adding that "we need to have a clarity on this".

The observation by the court came while hearing the Delhi government's plea challenging a single judge order of March 15 allowing private unaided schools in the city to go ahead with an interim hike in fees to implement the recommendations of the seventh central pay commission on salaries of teachers and other employees.

The bench had on April 3 put on hold the interim hike in fees by the private unaided schools and the direction was Monday extended till April 30, the next date of hearing in the matter.

During the arguments, the Delhi government's Directorate of Education (DoE) told the bench that there have been instances of fee hike by private unaided schools despite the stay order.

Delhi government standing counsel Ramesh Singh, appearing for DoE, also told the court that some schools proceeded to hike fees without first sending a proposal seeking approval for the same.

During the hearing, DoE also told the court that of the 364 schools which were part of the Action Committee, 266 had applied to hike fees and of them 58 have been granted approval.

Of the rest, 34 had withdrawn their proposal, applications of seven are still pending and the remaining 167 were rejected, DoE, also represented by additional standing counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi, said.

The Action Committee, during its arguments, told the bench that the DoE has been "prohibiting" them from submitting their statements of accounts, as required under the law, for seeking approval for increasing the fees.

It said "there was a concerted effort to prevent the schools from filing their statements of accounts".

The single judge, on March 15, had permitted the interim fee hike by quashing a Delhi government circular of April 13 last year, which had prohibited private unaided schools functioning on government land from hiking tuition amounts without approval of the DoE.

The government order was selectively applied to private schools which were on government land and as per a 'land clause' in the lease agreement, they needed to seek a prior approval of the DoE before hiking fees, the order noted.

Seeking to set aside the order, DoE had on the last date argued that the court had erred in holding that no prior approval was required in case of an interim fee hike as the same was not an act of fee increase by the school, but a dispensation by the department itself.

The single judge's order had come on the plea of the Action Committee which had challenged the April 13 last year DoE circular that had withdrawn an earlier notification of October 17, 2017 permitting interim hike of fees by private unaided schools.