The Punjab and Haryana high court will continue hearing the petitions filed by schools and parents from Punjab over collection of fee amid Covid-19 outbreak, on Monday.
On Friday, hearing continued for around three hours before the bench of justice Nirmaljit Kaur and Punjab government and schools’ counsels concluded their arguments. Lawyers from the parents’ bodies will start their arguments on Monday.
On May 22, the HC, acting on schools’ plea, had allowed them to charge 70% fee from students for the academic year 2020-2021. The court had also allowed schools to charge admission fee in two half-yearly instalments. The decision had resulted in widespread protests by parents in Punjab. The state has now sought modification of the order stating that they had put some conditions on fee collection in view of Covid-19 outbreak under the Epidemics Diseases Act, 1897, in view of complaints from parents. Also, it has been argued that state was well within its power to issue such orders with the issue at hand being a policy matter.
On the other hand, schools have argued that they are well within their right to collect fee and if they do not charge fee how will they pay salaries to teachers. They further argued that online classes were held.
Schools have raised the issue of validity of instructions passed by the state administration from time-to-time since March with regard to not increasing school fee, deferring collection of school fee in view of the Covid-19 outbreak, and not sending reminders to parents to pay the fee.
{{/usCountry}}Schools have raised the issue of validity of instructions passed by the state administration from time-to-time since March with regard to not increasing school fee, deferring collection of school fee in view of the Covid-19 outbreak, and not sending reminders to parents to pay the fee.
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