Fee regulatory body: Centre can modify Punjab laws adopted in Chandigarh, HC informed

The response was submitted in a plea filed by a private schools’ association challenging UT’s order asking schools to upload balance sheets on their websites and formation of a Fee Regulatory Authority.

The central government on Wednesday told the Punjab and Haryana high court that it was competent to make any modifications in a Punjab law being adopted by Chandigarh.

The Centre’s counsel told the court , “Section 87 of Punjab Re-Organisation Act, 1966, empowers the central government to extend enactments to Chandigarh with such restrictions or modifications as it thinks fit by notification in the official gazette.” (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The response was submitted in a plea filed by a private schools’ association challenging UT’s order asking schools to upload balance sheets on their websites. The Independent Schools’ Association has also challenged constitution of the Fee Regulatory Authority, under the Punjab Regulation of Fee of Unaided Educational Institutions Act, that was adopted by UT in 2018. The association has argued that the body has been constituted in violation of the parent law.

On Wednesday, the Centre’s counsel told the court , “Section 87 of Punjab Re-Organisation Act, 1966, empowers the central government to extend enactments to Chandigarh with such restrictions or modifications as it thinks fit by notification in the official gazette.”

The Centre argued that even otherwise, the notification will reveal that the modifications have been carried to incorporate transparency and maintain non-commercialisation of the unaided educational institutions. The additions are merely clarificatory, the court was told.

The UT administration has already told the court that disclosure of income and expenditure of schools on their websites doesn’t amount to invasion of their privacy and will not be violation of any rights guaranteed under the Constitution. The administration has termed these schools “public entities”, as they have been established on government land, and argued that they are bound to follow directions issued by the administration from time to time with regards to fee regulation.

The litigation started as UT sought schools’ income and expenditure details, as parents complained of schools resorting to profiteering even during the Covid-19 lockdown. The details were to be examined by the fee regulatory body, constituted under the law in question.

Schools have challenged the body’s constitution as well as provisions, which make it obligatory for them to upload their income details. The matter stands adjourned for June 29.