Queency Jain –
A PIL seeking to direct schools to take only 50% of the school fees has been filed in the Bombay High Court, to which the Court has directed the Maharashtra Government to file its response.
The petitioners submitted that the schools have been charging the normal fees from the parents despite the fact that the students are not able to use the facilities of the school because of the restrictions by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The petition appreciated the fact that the schools have incurred huge costs on setting up the online procedure during the pandemic, but also submitted that the expenses would not have been to the extent of the expenses parents incurred to arrange for the electronic devices, internet facility, etc. for their children.
It was submitted that charging the same amount of fees for the year 2020-2021, where children did not even use any facility of the school must not be acceptable and by this very act, the schools are indulging themselves in commercialization and profiteering.
Though the direction of the High court to bar schools from hiking school fees for the academic year 2020-2021 was put on stay in June 2020, the petitioners stated that the stay was vacated in the final order of March 2021 and any such imposition of excessive fees is against such order.
It was further claimed that though the Court has barred schools from debarring students from the schools due to non-payment of school fees, the schools have continued to do so.
In conclusion, the Government was blamed for not constituting a Divisional Fee Regulatory Committee to which the Government pleader Geeta Shastri informed that the same is constituted but she is on leave by the Court to place on record the information of functioning and address of the authority.