HC issues notice to Haryana govt, schools’ management over fee hike

The cases pertaining to school fee were adjourned to June 15 on Tuesday after parties sought time to file replies in the matter. A number of school associations including Sarv Vidyalaya Sangh, NISA Education and others are before the HC seeking lifting of the restrictions on collecting the enhanced fee. The schools say have been put under grave financial constraints due to the orders passed by Haryana.

In an application moved through advocate Pardeep Rapria, the parents’ associations have submitted that schools have not been following the government directives regarding collection of fee and many complaints have also been filed before the concerned authorities but no action has been taken by the government.

While the schools have also submitted that they are being told not to increase the fee for the academic session of 2020-2021 despite the fact that they have filed the Form VI mentioning the information before January 2020, the associations representing the parents have argued that mere submission of FORM VI does not permit the schools to enhance the fee as they are also required to submit audited financial and other returns.

Seeking permission to assist the court in the cases filed by school managements, the Trust namely ‘Sabka Mangal Ho’ and Haryana School Parents Welfare League in the application submitted that the assessment of the balance sheets of the private schools would reveal that most of them are sitting over a surplus money in crores.

“Since all schools are closed, therefore a significant proportion of the expenditure is almost nil. The online classes, also, without technical infrastructure are just a camouflage to extract full fee from the gullible parents. Infact, hapless parents have been forced to buy their gadgets for online education of the children,” the application reads.