Delhi HC issues notice on plea to upload Education Director's orders on fee increase proposal
Jul 24, 2020
New Delhi [India], July 24 : The Delhi High Court on Friday issued a notice to the Delhi government on a petition seeking directions to the Director of Education to upload orders passed by them while examining the fee increase proposal by recognised unaided schools.
A division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan asked the Delhi government and others to file a reply and listed the matter for further hearing on August 7.
The court was hearing a petition, filed by Justice For All secretary Advocate Shikha Sharma Bagga through advocate Khagesh B Jha, seeking directions to the Director of Education to upload orders passed by them while examining the fee increase proposal.
"An appropriate writ order or direction to respondent Director of Education to direct them to upload orders passed by them while examining the fee increase proposal filed by the recognised unaided schools for mandatory prior sanction as directed by the Supreme Court in para 27 of the Modern School vs Union of India along with the file noting and documents which are base for passing the orders," the plea read.
The petitioner also sought directions to the Director of Education to upload the inspection report and orders passed to correct the statement of fee submitted by recognised unaided schools of Delhi.
Advocate Jha said that the respondent is duty-bound to upload all orders passed by him at the official website of director of education being a public authority under the RTI Act, 2005.
The petitioner told the court that the top court has laid dawn law under Article 142 of Constitution of India and directed the Director of Education to ensure the compliance of terms of allotment letters which includes private schools situated at the land allotted by Delhi Development Authority (DDA) shall not increase the rate of tuition fee without prior sanction of Director of Education, GNCT of Delhi.
According to the petition, the Director of Education issued notification restraining private schools from any fee hike in the session 2020-21 and directed to collect only tuition fees as per the last approved fee structure in the school.
"There is no information in the public domain to show what is last approval fee of any specific school and what was tuition fee bifurcation that year and as a result schools are exploiting parents. The parents have no source to verify what the school is demanding what is directed in the government notification," the plea said.
