HC issues notice to state govt on exorbitant school fee, seeks reply

Vijay Arora

Shimla, July 25

Expressing concern on the issue of exorbitant fees being charged from the students of the private school at Chopal, the HP High Court today directed the Principal DAV Centenary Public School, Chopal, not to compel the parents of the students to pay the enhanced fee.

While passing this interim order a division Bench comprising Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan further issued notice to the Centre and the state government on this issue and sought their response. It further directed the Secretary Education of the state and the Union Secretary Human Resource Development to file their response within four weeks.

The court passed these orders on a petition filed by Madan Saregta, 

who has alleged in the petition that DAV Centenary Public School, Chopal, has started collecting and imposing charges for building fund, development funds and donations. Apart from this, the school management is also collecting money for issuing school leaving certificate. 

It was also alleged in the petition that the school management has also charged and forcibly collected money amounting to Rs 5,000 from every student of Class 10 and Rs 1,000 from every other student on account of getting registration for examination centre.

It was further alleged that during the current academic session the fee has been increased about 27 per cent abruptly and imposed in the mid academic session. The school management is forcing the parents to pay the enhanced fee otherwise threatening to strike off the name of the students from school rolls.

The petitioner has prayed that the respondents may be directed to stop illegal charging on account of development fund, building fund and fee book charges. It was also prayed that the respondents may be further directed not to compel the students to pay enhance fee in the mid academic session.