Delhi HC tells DPS Dwarka to allow 25 students back into classrooms

Delhi High Court allows 25 students of DPS Dwarka to attend classes despite fee issues, urging compliance with prior orders and 50% fee payment by April 17.

The Delhi High Court on Monday directed Delhi Public School (DPS) Dwarka to permit 25 students, whose names had been struck off for non-payment of outstanding fees, to attend classes while expressing strong displeasure over the school’s alleged failure to comply with its earlier directions restraining it from taking coercive action.

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A bench of justice Jasmeet Singh opined that the school’s practice of taking such action against students every year was unjustified, and that the recurring nature of the issue indicated that something was wrong with the school.

“It can’t be that every year we will undergo the same exercise. Once that there is an order, you have to comply with the in letter and spirit. It’s not fair on your [the school’s] part. Not fair at all. Every year, the same mockery, the same exercise. What is this? Every year same circus. There is something wrong with the school…” the court said to school’s lawyer Puneet Mittal.

The court, however, also directed the parents to deposit 50% of the outstanding fees by April 17.

The order was passed while hearing a petition filed by parents of over 100 students seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against the school’s principal Priya Narayanan and chairman of the management committee Kaushik Datta for allegedly violating an earlier order by striking off the names of 25 students from April 7 over non-payment of outstanding fees.

On May 16, 2025, the high court had directed the school to allow students to continue their education and ordered parents to pay 50% of the hiked fees from 2024-25 onwards, until the Delhi government’s Directorate of Education (DoE) took a call on the school’s request for a fee increase.

Parents, in their plea, alleged that the school failed to comply with the court’s directions, including not refunding excess fees charged beyond the DoE-approved amount for 2023-24.

The lawyer for DPS Dwarka submitted on Monday that the decision was taken only after the parents were allowed to be heard through a personal hearing. He also said that its order striking off the students name will not be given effect to in case the parents deposit 50% of the outstanding fees and also opposed 102 parents moving court when only 25 were affected.

The court also criticised DoE’s conduct of not approving fees after 2015-16. “You’ve to maintain standards of education… you don’t permit increase of fees. How will the school function?” the bench said. The matter will be heard next on August 27.