41 schools told to refund excess fee

“The committee has recommended refund of fee which was unjustly hiked by 41 schools. For seven schools, apart from the refund, the committee also recommended that special inspections be carried out by the Director of Education (DoE). For 34 of the 41 schools, the committee has found that the fee hike effected by them — in compliance with the order dated February 11, 2009 issued by the DoE — was either wholly or partially unjustified…,” the report said.

The bench has now fixed the matter for further hearing on October 28 while directing the Delhi government to file a status report on the “implementation of the recommendations”.

In August 2011, Delhi High Court had set up the committee to scrutinise the accounts of various unaided private schools to determine the validity of the Delhi government’s February 2009 notification permitting them to hike tuition fees.

The order had come on a petition filed by an NGO, Social Jurists, through advocate Ashok Agarwal alleging that schools had hiked the fees “unreasonably” and had not paid salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff as per the Sixth Pay Commission.

The report also said that records of 14 schools were “unreliable” and recommended a special inspection by the DoE. The panel, however, gave a favourable note to 19 other schools as it “found the hike effected by them was not excessive.”