BENGALURU: Terming as an ‘emotional statement’ the contention of the State Government that it has sought permission to take the court into confidence and form a committee to resolve the fee issue for the academic year 2021-22, considering the plight of the parents, the advocates for the private schools management argued before the Karnataka High Court that they are governed by the law and not by emotional statements.
In response to the submission made by the Advocate General Prabhuling Navadagi before Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum that the plight of the parents is unexplainable, as most of them have lost their livelihood due to the lockdown, senior counsel Madhusudan R Naik, representing some private schools, submitted that they are governed by law and not by the emotional statement.
Naik also argued that the state government doesn’t have the power to regulate the fee which is in the domain of the management of schools, as ruled by the Supreme Court in the TMA Pai Foundation and Rajasthan cases. A general order cannot be passed to satisfy somebody’s emotional statement, he added.
Senior Advocate Uday Holla, representing a body of some private schools managements, argued that the state, on the one hand, passed an order to reduce the fee. On the other hand, it also passed an order to pay minimum wages to teaching and non-teaching staff. In such a situation, how can schools survive, he questioned.
Prior to this, Advocate General Prabhuling Navadagi argued that the State Government sought permission from the court to take it into confidence in forming a panel headed by a former judge of the high court for fixation of fee. This is because the government has received numerous representations from parents who are practically unable to pay the fees due to the unprecedented situation created by Covid. Also, though the court passed an interim order to take individual grievances of parents who are unable to pay the fee last academic year, many schools had violated the order by collecting 100 per cent fee, instead of 70 per cent, which was fixed for the year 2019-20, he argued.
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