Indore bench of MP high court has put a stay on state government order restraining private schools affiliated to CBSE from charging fees other than tuition fee. However, the court has further ordered the schools to not charge the fees for the services which are not rendered by them during the closure. Such services include transportation and mess fees.
In an order issued by the state on May 16, the government had instructed the private schools of the state to only charge tuition fee. The order was challenged by president of Association of Unaided CBSE Schools Anil Dhupar through counsel Gaurav Chabhra.
The CBSE in a notification on April 17 permitted state governments to examine the issue of payment of school fees and teachers’ salary sensitively and to issue suitable instruction on periodicity of their payment.
Throwing light upon the case, Mr Chabhra stated that there is no act in the state permitting the government to fix the fees in respect of the school affiliated to CBSE and the matter is already settled by a division bench of this court in an identical matter in 2015.
Schools are required to pay full salary to teachers and non-teaching staff and therefore, they are recovering fees and tuition fees excluding expenses like transportation charges and mess fees.
Additional advocate general Vivek Dalal opposed the arguments of petitioner counsel and informed the court that the state government had passed the order under Disaster Management Act. Dalal added that keeping in view of the pandemic, the state government was justified in issuing the order.
However, contradicting the argument, Mr Chabhra stated that under Section 18 and 19 of Disaster Management Act, it is the state disaster management authority that could pass the order and not the state government.
On the other hand, Akhil Godha, counsel for the CBSE argued that that CBSE had already issued a circular and some of the High Courts directed the schools to submit a representation and the respective state government were directed to decide their representation.
Indore parents association through Counsel Vibhor Khandelwal intervened in the matter and presented his argument stating that the state government can decide the heads; the school fees can be charged under CBSE bylaws even in absence of any legislation in the state.
He further added that the schools aren’t providing services including bus and mess so they can’t charge these fees during this pandemic. The court further sought a detailed reply from petitioner and respondents within four weeks and asked to list the matter on July 28.
