Court: Pay school fee dues by Oct 25

Court: Pay school fee dues by Oct 25

‘No Rustication, All Kids Be Allowed To Take Exams’

Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey & Subrata Chattoraj

Kolkata:02.10.2021

The Calcutta High Court on Friday directed all defaulting parents to pay their school fee arrears by October 25. Schools have been directed not to rusticate any kid for the time being and allow all of them to sit for boards, annual or mid-term exams. Parents will have the right to pay “disputed” and “undisputed” amounts separately.

The order given by the division bench of Justice I P Mukerji and Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya said the court received affidavits from schools, saying their outstanding fees added up to a substantial amount, running into crores, and that if the fees were not received it would be difficult for schools to run or pay bonus to their employees in the festive period.

The order, however, mentioned that the court had also received several contempt petitions from parents, claiming schools were not charging the amounts according to the HC order of October 13, 2020. This order stated that parents had suffered due to the pandemic and could be allowed to pay 80% of the tuition fees. But “a dispute has been raised that the bills raised by the schools and other educational institutions are not in accordance with the said order”, Friday’s order stated. Many parents had filed contempt petitions that schools were charging much more than what the court had specified and that they had paid amounts, which were the court-sanctioned amounts. Many schools had allegedly refused to accept these calculations done by parents. This led to a deadlock and schools had clubbed parents, who had paid according to this calculation, with defaulting guardians.

Friday’s order clarified that parents would have to clear the entire amount decided upon by schools by October 25, but they could segregate the fees as “undisputed” and “disputed” portions and label them accordingly during the payment. “The school authorities will be entitled to straightaway appropriate the admitted amount. They shall also receive the disputed amount, deposit the same in a separate account and keep an account,” Friday’s order said.

The court has asked each school to file an affidavit, to show the amounts they received according to Friday’s order, prepare a list of defaulting parents and the total amount due from each of them. The court will hear both sides on December 3. Meanwhile, no school could rusticate any student and would have to allow them to sit for all exams, court said.

“The direction of the court upon parents to pay fees by October 25 in the manner provided in the order will help schools to run and maintain them for the benefit of all the stakeholders,” said lawyer Sourav Bhagat, who represented Birla High School, South Point School, MP Birla Foundation, Shri Shikshayatan.

Parents’ groups also lauded the order. “Most parents are facing a stand-off with school authorities because there has been a dispute over the outstanding amount. We welcome the order. We will now see how many school managements take this order seriously,” said Sanjeev Sharma, secretary of United Parents’ Protection Forum.