Setback for 400 private schools on Delhi govt land: No fee hike without govt nod, says SC

According to agreements between over 400 schools and the Delhi Development Authority, prior approval from the Delhi government’s Directorate of Education (DoE) is imperative to enhance school fee.

The SC order assumes significance since it has come at a time when parents are queuing up for nursery admissions and the new fee structures by private schools are likely to be announced soon.

Rajeev Sinha, a parent, said, “While filling forms for my daughter, school websites said new fee structure shall be announced later.”
Since several schools had been breaching the condition of not enhancing fee without permission from the DoE, a clutch of PILs were moved in the Delhi HC.

The HC, in January 2016, ruled that private schools cannot hike fee without prior approval of the DoE. The HC held that “schools cannot indulge in profiteering and commercialisation” of education, and directed authorities to act against errant schools.

Aggrieved by this order, the Action Committee of Unaided Recognised Private Schools and the Association of Public Schools moved an appeal, but the top court shot it down. “You (schools) are on their (government’s) land. Why won’t you seek their permission before hiking fees,” said the bench while dismissing the plea.

When the counsel for the schools sought to withdraw the petitions so that no adverse order passed was to close their legal options in the future, the court said, “We have heard you (schools) and now we have dismissed it (the petition). You argued this petition. We cannot let you withdraw it now.”