Supreme Court dismisses SLP against Delhi High Court order allowing private schools to collect fee with a 15% deduction for unutilized facilities during lockdown
Supreme Court today dismissed SLP against the Delhi High Court order where it allowed schools to collect annual fee from students with a 15% deduction on total fee , in lieu of unutilized facilities in the lockdown.
A full judge bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Aniruddha Bose, dismissed the petition expressing no inclination to interfere with the High Court's order.
Submissions were made by Senior Advocate(s) Shyam Divan for the private unaided schools and Vikas Singh for the Directorate of Education.
"I am only for the stay. The Delhi Act has a proper scheme as far as Delhi is concerned. Delhi had permitted to collect full tuition fees. We had only said not to collect annual charges & development fees. That's because the schools in Delhi didn't open", submitted Senior Counsel Mr. Singh.
The Delhi High Court on May 31, 2021 while quashing the office orders of April and August 2020 issued by the DoE of the Delhi government forbidding and postponing collection of annual charges and development fees, saying they were "illegal" and "ultra vires the powers of the respondent (DoE) stipulated under the Delhi School Education (DSE) Act and the Rules said that
“The Delhi government had no power to indefinitely postpone collection of annual charges and development fees by private unaided schools as it would unreasonably restrict their functioning.”
Agreeing with the schools' contentions, the high court had also said that private recognised unaided schools were "clearly dependent only on the fees collected to cover their salary, establishment and all other expenditure".
"Any regulations or order which seek to restrict or in-definitely postpone their powers to collect normal and usual fees as is sought to be done by the impugned orders is bound to create grave financial prejudice and harm to the schools," it also said.
The high court had further said the scope of power and authority of the DoE to interfere with the fixation and collection of fees by unaided educational institutions was well defined.
Thereafter, a letter patent appeal was filed by the petitioners against the Single Judge order wherein the vacation bench of Justice Rekha Palli and Justice Amit Bansal on June 7, 2021 while refusing to stay the operation of the judgement, issued notice in the plea.
Case Title: Directorate Of Education Government Of Nct Of Delhi Versus Action Committee Unaided Recognized Private Schools