School fee: High court disposes of pleas by mgmts

School fee: High court disposes of pleas by mgmts

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:17.09.2021

The high court on Thursday disposed of petitions filed by private school managements against the state government’s 30% fee cut order, referring to a Supreme Court judgment in the matter on May 3. The apex court, in the Indian School Jodhpur vs State of Rajasthan case, allowed for a 15% cut in fees for the 2020-21 academic year and said the remaining amount should be paid in six equal monthly instalments.

Referring to the SC decision, Justice R Devdas told school managements not to debar any student from attending online or physical classes over non-payment of fees or arrears. They have also been asked to consider sympathetically the representations of students whose parents can’t afford to pay fees.

The Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS), Karnataka State Minorities Educational Institutions Managements Federation and others had challenged the January 29, 2021 directive issued by the state government asking all the private schools to collect only 70% of the fees collected in 2019-20, without any other changes. They said the directive barring coercive action had resulted in parents not paying fees.

They further claimed that though the government allowed collection of 70% of tuition fees, it amounted to only 50% since no admission fees and other charges were collected by the member schools for 2020-21 and there was greater spending on infrastructure for conducting online classes. The minority schools contended that the directive of the state government affected their rights guaranteed under Article 30 of the Constitution.

Referring to the apex court decision, Justice R Devdas told school managements not to debar any student from attending online or physical classes over non-payment of fees or arrears