Punjab and Haryana High Court gives schools go-ahead to collect tuition, admission fee

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 30

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today ruled that all schools were entitled to collect tuition fee irrespective of offering online classes during the Covid lockdown period. Permission to collect admission fee henceforth was also granted, but the schools were restrained from recovering charges for any facility they did not spend money on.

The court also asked the schools not to hike the fee for 2020-21 and adopt the old structure of 2019-20.

Expenses Genuine

The management of each school shall work out its actual expenditure for the period the school remained closed and recover only genuine expenditure. Justice Nirmaljit Kaur

A Bench of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur said the pleas of parents facing hardships due to the lockdown would be considered sympathetically by the schools before deciding on either giving concession or exempting the entire fee, as the case may be. For this, the parents could file an application along with necessary proof about their financial status. “No parent shall misuse the concession by laying a false claim,” warned Justice Nirmaljit Kaur.

In case of grievances following an adverse decision by a school on their plea, the parents were given the liberty to approach the regulatory body.

Justice Nirmaljit Kaur also asked the schools to continue imparting online/distance learning to prevent education from being adversely impacted due to the “present or future lockdowns”.

The directions came on a bunch of petitions filed against Punjab and other respondents by the Independent Schools’ Association, Chandigarh, and other schools through senior counsel Puneet Bali, Aashish Chopra and other advocates.

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