Delhi High Court stays govt circular allowing private schools to increase fees by up to 15%

Delhi: In a major relief to agitating parents, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday stayed the order passed by the state Education Department, which enabled private schools to increase fees by 15 percent. The government circular was issued, apparently, to enable schools to pay the teachers salary as per the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission. The Delhi High Court order was issued while hearing a petition filed by around 100 students of ASN senior secondary school Mayur Vihar. Khagesh Jha, the advocate who argued on behalf of the petitioner told Firstpost, “We submitted to the court that the order approving the increase in fees was passed by the Delhi government in collusion with the private schools. The schools have enough funds to pay the teachers’ salary as per the recommendation of the Seventh Pay Commission and hence need not increase fees to do the same.” [caption id=“attachment_3301320” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] The petitioner also cited the Justice Anil Dev Singh report which said that during implementation of Sixth Pay Commission, many schools in Delhi increased fees arbitrarily even when they had enough funds to meet the expenses. Interpreting the Justice Anil Dev Singh report, Aatishi Marlena, Advisor to the Government of Delhi wrote in an article published in Firstpost , ‘When the Sixth Pay Commission was implemented in 2008, private schools also had to increase their teachers’ salary. Many of them claimed that they did not have any reserve funds and, therefore, needed to hike the fees for increasing the salaries.” She further maintained that in a landmark judgment in 2011, in Dilli Abhibhavak Sangh vs Govt of NCT of Delhi, the Delhi High Court constituted the Justice Anil Dev Singh Committee, to look into the accounts of private schools to see whether the fee hikes were justified. The Justice Anil Dev Singh Committee found that 544 of the 1,000+ schools had hiked their fees in an unjustified manner, adding that they had reserve funds to pay the increased salaries but still chose to hike their fees. The petitioner further argued that the government should have audited the accounts of the schools before passing the order to increase fees. “The government cannot pass blanket order to increase fees without checking their accounts,” Jha said. Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government issued a circular on 17 October permitting privately funded schools to increase fees up to 15 percent, so as to pay salary to their teachers and other staff as per requirements of the Seventh Central Pay Commission. Though the government order had set a few procedure to be followed by the schools while increasing fees, it was seen as giving free hand to schools to increase the fees as they wish. As per the order the schools are neither bound to seek permission from the parents nor the government to increase fees. Soon after the order was issued by the education department many schools issued notices declaring increase of fees much to the woes of the parents. Many schools even saw     face-off between school authorities and parents. Jyoti Vasisht whose children study in Bal Bharti Public School said that more than 50 parents had made representation to the school authorities on Tuesday along with two AAP MLAs urging them not to increase the fees. “We went to the school authorities but were told that the school is running in losses as a result of which increase of fees was inevitable to pay for the increased teachers’ salary,” she said. Vashisht also pointed out that there was a mismatch between what the government was claiming and as the situation was on ground. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal earlier said, “Parents from all over Delhi have met me in last few days with complaints that schools are demanding very high fees including arrears to implement 7th Pay Commission. This must stop. I have directed Education Department to review the whole situation and to take immediate steps to stop this.” “The school authorities told us that they have not received any communication from the government barring them from fee hike and hence cannot roll back decision,’ Vashisht said. She further asked that if the government honestly feels that the schools should not resort to increase in fees than it should issue written order to them conveying it to them. Rekha Jha, whose children study in Delhi Jain Public School, Palam said that the schools have been anyway increasing fees by more than 10 percent every year. “How come they have no money to pay salary as per seventh pay commission?” she asked. The stay order issued by the Delhi High Court has come as a relief to agitating parents. But Ashok Agarwal, president of All India Parents Association says that even in absence of the circular to increase fees, some schools may still resort to a fee hike, as they are there is no law against the increase of fees. “The law provides for increase of fees by the unaided private schools if they really need money. Since this law still exists, some schools may increase fees even in the absence of the government circular,” he said.