Aishwarya Rathore-
Published On: October 8, 2021 at 14:14 IST
The Supreme Court granted the School Managements the authority to take appropriate legal action to recover outstanding fees from students who have defaulted.
A Bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice CT Ravikumar stated, “The spirit of the direction given in the judgment dated 3 May was to give time to the parent/ward concerned to pay the fees, including by way of instalments. That does not and did not extricate the parent from the liability to pay the amount specified in the judgment in any manner.”
The Court further clarified, “The concerned judgment does not prohibit the schools from taking coercive action against the students who have failed to pay the installments as per the arrangement predicated in the judgment.”
On May 3, the Court ruled that States cannot infringe on Private Unaided Schools’ autonomy to set and collect “just” and “permissible” school fees from parents, especially in the name of the pandemic.
The May Judgment was the result of a series of appeals made by Private Unaided Schools in Rajasthan against Government Notifications to defer or reduce school fees owing to the effects of the pandemic.
Despite the fact that the judgement was issued nearly five months ago, some parents refused to pay the fees.
Later, the School Administration moved to the Supreme Court again.
The Court further reiterated, “If any individual request is made by a parent finding it difficult to remit annual fees for the academic year 2020-2021 in terms of the judgment, the School Management has to consider such representation on a case-to-case basis sympathetically.”
Accordingly, the Court disposed off the applications.
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