Court seek fee structure data

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, AUG. 6.

The Delhi High Court today sought to know from the Delhi Government the status of compilation of data on the free structure of more than 900 private schools of the Capital.

A Division Bench comprising Mr. Justice Anil Dev Singh and Mr. Justice Madan Lokur also asked the State Government to inform it by October 16 whether the private schools were allotting 25 per cent of their total of number of seats to poor children under the mandatory free education scheme.

The Bench issued the directions on a public interest litigation seeking directions to these schools to confine their tuition fee hikes to the high court limit and guideline of 1998.

The Delhi Abhibhawak Sangh (DAS), the petitioner, alleged that these schools had been raising their tuition fees from 20 to 40 per cent every year in violation of the High Court guidelines.

The petitioner said the schools were also flouting the land agreement where it has been provided that they will reserve 25 per cent of their total seats for admission to children belonging to poorer sections under the free education scheme.

The Bench also directed those schools which are parties to the PIL to file affidavits stating whether they had implemented the scheme.

The school managements would provide the same details to the Directorate of Education as well, the Bench added.

Earlier, counsel for the Government submitted that data on audit reports of 398 schools had been compiled and the work was in progress for the remaining.

The High Court had in 1998 permitted these schools to increase their tuition fees by 40 per cent per annum. However, the increase was subject to a condition that a special committee would examine the justifiability of the hike.

The court had also appointed a committee to examine the records of each school. The committee in its report had said that a majority of the schools refused to make available their records to it.

Following submission of the report, the court had directed the Government to set up a permanent grievances redressal committee to look into complaints of fee hikes over and above the limit fixed by the high court.

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