Private Delhi schools move court against fee regulation law: Three reasons why they are challenging it
Schools have argued that fees are already regulated under an existing law, the Delhi School Education Act, 1973 (DSEAR), and its rules.
They argue that parents might act unpredictably or unfairly, rejecting necessary expenses for school maintenance, growth, or new facilities, which could harm the school’s functioning and development. A month after the Delhi government brought into effect the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Act, 2025, private schools have approached the Delhi High Court challenging its constitutional validity and seeking to have it struck down. The schools have based their challenge on three broad grounds, raising concerns about conflicts with existing laws, interference in their autonomy, the law’s tilt in favour of parents, and restrictions on how they handle fee-related matters.
Delhi’s Private schools have argued that fees are already regulated under an existing law, the Delhi School Education Act, 1973 (DSEAR), and its rules. They claim that the new law passed by the Delhi Legislative Assembly contradicts this earlier Act. For instance, the private schools have pointed out that the new law changes who controls school fee decisions by taking power away from school management and giving it mainly to parents and teachers, which schools say conflicts with the older law.
They have said that under DSEAR, a 21-member School Management Committee (13 management, 1 parent, 2 teachers, officials) decided fees, but the new law shifts power to the committee dominated by parents (5 parents, 3 teachers, 1 management).
The second ground relates to non-payment of fees. The schools have highlighted that while DSEAR allows schools to strike off the name of a ward for non-payment of fees, the new act prohibits any such action, and further threatens schools with penalties in case of any coercive action against students.
The schools argue that the new law unfairly interferes with how private schools are run, thereby violating the “fundamental and constitutional rights of the management of private schools”.
They argue that the new allows parents (who use the school’s services) to have too much control over decisions that should be made by the schools. “….a consumer of a service cannot be the decision-maker, that too, in overwhelming precedence to the wisdom and decision-making power of the service-provider itself,” the plea states.
They have also argued that the certain parameters and factors of deciding the fees under the new law are incomplete and weaker, as it does not follow the guidelines earlier set by the Supreme Court and DSEAER – such as the new law imposing penalties for violation of its provisions. As per the schools, the private schools’ fundamental rights and autonomy ensures that they do not have any liability or obligation to take any prior approval of the DOE before increasing fees for new academic sessions, which the new law does away with.
The schools say the new law, by giving parents the deciding say in multi-level fee committees and requiring unanimous approval, is likely to “create a perennial & never-ending confrontation between the Management of a School and the parents.”The schools have also pointed out that, unlike the new law, earlier rules consciously excluded parents from deciding fees and limited the education department’s role to only preventing profiteering, rather than controlling fee fixation.The schools have argued it is not logical to let parents, who have to pay the fees, decide on fee increases.
They argue that parents might act unpredictably or unfairly, rejecting necessary expenses for school maintenance, growth, or new facilities, which could harm the school’s functioning and development.
Share
