NEW DELHI: With the majority of private schools who have been sent out notices by the Department of Education (DoE), Delhi government, not obeying the directions of the establishment, the Delhi High Court on Sunday ordered them to return the 75 percent of the excess fee within two weeks or face action.
The order comes after many attempts by the Delhi government to make the schools pay for the fee that they have got from the parents in the name of development of the schools but in the end did not use the money. Private schools in return approached the High Court against the direction of the Delhi government.
As per the recommendations laid down by the Justice Anil Dev Singh committee six years ago, schools are to refund the excess fees to the parents which has been collected on some pretext or the other.
"We had given you adequate time to schools to put your house in order. Yet, the schools have not complied with our order. They must themselves deposit the amount extracted in excess from students. We acknowledge that there may be variations in the amount calculated by the committee. But to say that halt the whole process, is not fair. We can't pass a blanket order that don't recover the money. You deposit the amount and we are inclined to give an expeditious hearing," the bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Najmi Waziri said.
The court took strong exception that since 2011 the schools have failed to comply with High Court appointed Justice Anil Dev Singh committee and its directions. Of the 1092 private schools, the panel had said that 531 among them had charged excess fee and recommended that it should be refunded with nine per cent interest. It had also recommended special inspection of 247 schools.
Earlier, the DoE had in May this year issued notices to several defaulting schools, telling them that failure to refund the excess fees as recommended by the committee could lead to their de-recognition or taking over of their management by the department.