6 Gujarat schools fined up to Rs 2.5 lakh for charging higher fees than prescribed

However, as per the data maintained by the state government and tabled in the Legislative Assembly’s budget session that concluded last month, complaints against 19 self-financed schools for charging higher fees were received by the FRC in 2023-24.

“All these complaints were resolved by the zonal FRCs. From February 2024 till January 31, 2025, another 16 complaints against private schools for charging higher fees were received. Among these, 13 have been resolved with a few schools being fined while documents submitted by others against the fee were found valid. The remaining three complaints are under investigation,” a senior education official told The Indian Express.

As per the Gujarat Self-financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act 2017, no self-financed school can collect any fee in excess of what has been fixed by the FRC for admission of students to any standard or course of study in that school. The private schools can be penalised up to Rs 5 lakh for the first contravention.

The rules stipulate that while for a hike in the school fee, a private school is required to apply to the FRC in accordance with the provisions of the Act and the rules within the prescribed time limit, schools charging fees lower than what is prescribed by the state government have to only file an affidavit to the panel.

Pre-primary and primary schools with fees up to Rs 15,000 per annum will be exempted from applying to the FRC. For secondary and higher secondary schools offering general stream, the exemption limit is Rs 25,000, while for higher secondary schools with science stream, it is Rs 30,000 per annum.

As on January 31, 2025, Gujarat has 13,163 registered private schools. Divided into four zones— Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, and Rajkot – a majority of them (12,681) are affiliated to the state board, followed by 443 affiliated to CBSE, 28 to ICSE, and 11 to the international boards.

Government records revealed that out of all these private schools in the state, only 1,914 had applied to the FRC for a hike in fee in 2025. While the fee of 1,577 schools was fixed by the FRC, it is pending for 337 of them. Another 11,249 private schools had filed their affidavits with the FRC stating that their fee was within the exemption limit. Among these, 8,007 schools charge less than Rs 15,000 annual fee, while 2,760 of them take under Rs 25,000 per year. Around 482 schools come within the Rs 30,000 exemption limit.

Taking into consideration the data of the last two years, out of the total private schools in Gujarat, while only 10 per cent of the schools have applied for a higher fee in 2024, this increased to 15 per cent in 2025.

Each of the four zonal FRCs are chaired by a retired District and Sessions Judge or a person who had been a member of All India Service, having retired from a post not below the rank of Principal Secretary to Government or a person who had been a member of Indian Police Service, having retired from a post not below the rank of Additional Director General of Police nominated by the government. Other than that, a Chartered Accountant, to be nominated by the government; a civil engineer or a government-approved valuer, to be nominated by the government; a representative from the self-financed school management of the respective zone, nominated by the government; and an academician of repute, to be nominated by the government are eligible for the post.