Gujarat Self-Financed Schools Act: Congress wants Sibal, Singhvi to withdraw as schools’ lawyers

When state Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki and AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot were questioned by mediapersons in this regard, the two leaders said that as professional advocates, Sibal and Singhvi were free to handle any case in any court of the country. They also countered that BJP leader and advocate Arun Jaitley had defended stock broker Ketan Parekh in a Rs 1,200-crore bank scam in Gujarat earlier.

“As the issue of fee regulation has evoked strong ire and restlessness among the parents against school managements who are brazenly collecting exorbitant fees by coercion, ignoring the Gujarat Self-Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017, the Congress party is supporting the students and parents for effective and transparent implementation of the Act to ensure affordable education,” Doshi said in the letter, requesting the two lawyers to withdraw themselves as advocates from the case.

The Gujarat Self-Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017, came into force in April 2017 after Governor O P Kohli signed it. But the Act was challenged by the private schools in the Gujarat High Court. The Gujarat High Court on December 28, 2017, upheld the law, and ruled that the state government’s law to regulate fees was constitutionally valid.

The fee structure prescribed in the Act for primary, secondary and higher secondary schools is Rs 15,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 27,000 per year, respectively. As per the rules of the Act, all private schools that want to charge fees more than what has been prescribed, need to submit their proposal with the fee regulatory committee before imposing any hike.