Vadodara school accused of land grabbing loses CBSE affiliation

The CBSE order stated that it has been “established that the school/trust is not in lawful ownership of the land and the recommended infrastructure”, which is against the mandatory requirement under multiple conditions and clauses of the Affiliation Bye-Laws.

The notice of the CBSE withdrawing affiliation to Tree House school was issued March 8, days after the Vadodara City Detection of Crime Branch arrested two directors of Mumbai-based Tree House Education and Accessories Limited on March 3 for allegedly “retaining possession of the property” of the school after having finalised a sale deed with Ahmedabad-based Zebar Realty Ltd.

No new admissions

While the CBSE has stated that the school will be unable to promote the students of lower classes with immediate effect, students appearing for exams of Class 10 and 12 have been permitted to continue from the same school while those of Class 9 and 11 have been asked to shift to the nearby CBSE schools. The CBSE order stated, “Students in Class 10 and 12 will be permitted to appear from the same school for the 2024-25 academic session. However, the students, who are presently in Class 9 and 11 shall be shifted to nearby CBSE affiliated schools by the Regional Office, Bengaluru, by March 31 for the 2025-26 session”.

“The school shall not take any new admissions or promote the students of lower classes in 9 and 11 by natural progression hereafter. The school may seek restoration of affiliation by following the due process — by application through SARS portal — and by complying with all the conditions laid down by the board as per the Affiliation Bye-Laws, 2018,” the order stated.

The CBSE order stated that the Tree House School “made gross violations of the clauses of the Affiliation Bye-laws without any approval/intimation to the Board and that the trust/school is not in lawful possession of the required land and infrastructure” by entering into commercial agreements and deeds by changing the legal ownership over the land of the existing school building.

The CBSE order further stated that two show-cause notices were served to the management and the parent company on January 17, 2024, and on December 5, 2024, “seeking the clarifications, comments of school/society, along with the copy of the supporting documents in compliance of the mandatory provisions”. Subsequently, the trust replied on March 19, 2024 as well as in December but the explanation was “not satisfactory as the trust has not submitted any documents refuting the claim of M/s Zebar Realty LLP by placing any legal documents on right over the land and the infrastructure.”

Stating that even after repeated communications, the school/trust “have not placed any cogent and acceptable documents to establish the legal ownership over the land and school infrastructure… and the same have been transferred secretly in favour of another entity without approval and intimation to the Board.”

Advocate Hitesh Gupta, appearing for Zebar Realty told The Indian Express, “My client has paid Rs 18 crore for the deal and intended to continue administering the school as they have four other schools in Ahmedabad. But the owners of Tree House had malafide intentions… The students will now have to explore other options or take legal recourse. The illegality was committed two academic years ago and our contention is that the school not only cheated my client but also the education board.”

While Vadodara District Education Officer Mahesh Pandey told The Indian Express that his office was “examining the details of the case as it pertained to CBSE board”, officials of Tree House School remained unavailable for comment on Wednesday.

Case history

Based on the complaint filed by Ahmedabad-resident Ramesh Desai, the DCB had registered an FIR against directors of Mumbai-based Tree House Education and Accessories Limited as well as Meera Education Trust that currently runs the school for allegedly “retaining possession of the property” where the school is located in Atladara area of Vadodara. According to the FIR lodged at the DCB police station, despite finalising a sale deed in February 2023, with Desai’s firm, Zebar Realty, and also promising to “hand over the management of the school” to the real estate firm for a decided price of Rs 18 crore, the accused allegedly “did not hand over a peaceful possession” of the property to the complainant.

The accused booked in the case have been identified as directors Rajesh Bhatia, Dipen Shah, Malin Ramani, Jugal Shah, Divya Padhiyar, Nidhi Busa, Navinkumar Bhandarde, Guddi Chandrikaprasad Bajpai, along with Meera Education Trust, Girdharilal Bhatia, Faizan Qureshi, R Venkat Lakshmi, Principal and coordinator Minal Patel and Abhishek Rajesh Bhatia, according to the FIR.

All the accused have been booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 316(2) (criminal breach of peace), 316(4) (criminal breach of trust by a person entrusted with a property), 318(3) (cheating with the knowledge of causing wrongful loss to a person whose interest is in the transaction), [61(2)(a)] (criminal conspiracy to commit offence punishable with death, imprisonment for life or rigorous imprisonment of two years and more) as well as The Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, 2020.