Sakina Tahsrifwala
Published on: 23 November 2022 at 11:47 IST
According to the Delhi High Court that the private unaided schools are exempt from the rule in the Delhi School Education Rules that says they can’t charge late fees more than five pence per day.
The Action Committee Unaided Recognised Private School, an association of more than 500 unaided private schools in Delhi, petitioned the court, and a bench of Justices Vibhu Bakhru and Amit Mahajan made the decision.
The petitioner had contested a ruling by the Directorate of Education (DoE) from February 2013 that said a private, unaided school in this nation could not levy a fine larger than five paisa per day for a student’s tardy tuition payment.
The petitioner, who was represented by counsel Kamal Gupta, also asked for a directive declaring that Part B of Chapter XIII of the Rules’ Rule 166 does not apply to private unaided recognised schools.
In contrast to the fee assessed by aided schools, the court declared that private unaided schools receive a large amount of autonomy in fee concerns, overturning the DoE ruling.
The court ruled that private, unaided schools were allowed to choose their own tuition prices as well as other costs and contributions that the student would be responsible for.
According to the court’s order dated November 15, as quoted by PTI, “From a review of the provisions contained in Chapter XIII of the Rules and keeping in mind the principles of purposive interpretation as discussed above, we have no hesitation to hold that the provisions of Chapter XIII of the Rules are applicable only in relation to aided schools.”
The court declared, “The order dated 11.02.2013 passed by the DoE is, thus, set aside.”
The court asserted that the DoE order noted that a committee had been constituted to study the provision even though it had already determined that Rule 166 did not apply to private, unaided schools.
It also mentioned that it expected the process to move quickly and that the authorities will offer their recommendations in less time than eight weeks.