BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has permitted the managements of private unaided schools to collect annual fees from students as fixed under the Karnataka Education Act for the academic year 2019-20, but by providing a reduction of 15 per cent on the amount in lieu of unutilised facilities during the relevant period.
However, it is open to the managements to offer further concession to students, or to evolve a different pattern for getting concession over and above the amount after the 15-per cent reduction, the court added.
Justice R Devdas passed the order while disposing of a batch of petitions filed by private unaided schools against the order passed by the State Government restraining them from collecting fees for the academic year 2020-21, in excess of 70 per cent of the tuition fees, in view of Covid-19.
According to the order pronounced on Thursday, the school managements should not debar any student from attending either online or physical classes on account of non-payment of fees, arrears/outstanding fees including installments, and should not withhold examination results. This apart, if any individual request is made by a parent or ward, who is finding it difficult to remit annual fees for 2020-21 in terms of this order, the court asked the school managements to consider such representations on case-to-case basis sympathetically.
It also made it clear that this arrangement will not affect fee collection for 2021-22, as is payable by students of the concerned school as and when it becomes due and payable. The schools managements should not withhold the name of any student for the ensuing Board examination for Classes 10 and 12 on grounds of non-payment of fee/arrears for the said period, if any, on obtaining undertaking of the concerned parents/students, the court added.
Provide Braille textbooks in 15 days: HC tells state
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Friday directed the State Government to provide Braille textbooks to visually impaired Kannada medium students of classes 1 to 10 within 15 days, and file a compliance report. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum passed the order after hearing public interest litigation filed in 2019 by the Karnataka chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. In response to the petition on the non-availability of textbooks in Braille, the State had, on March 18, 2020, assured the court that such textbooks will be available from the next academic year. However, the textbooks were not supplied.