DPS Society urges Delhi HC to stay notice on school fee panel formation

DPS Society urges Delhi High Court to stay fee regulation committees' formation, citing resource constraints and impractical timelines.

New Delhi

On Friday, DoE counsel, additional solicitor general SV Raju, is expected to commence with his submissions. (Representative photo)

The Delhi Public School (DPS) Society, which oversees all of its schools across the country and abroad, urged the Delhi High Court on Thursday to stay a notification advancing the formation of school-level fee regulation committees (SLFRC), contending that its constitution is a “mammoth exercise” requiring substantial resources, and one that cannot reasonably be completed within a 10-day timeline.

On February 1, the directorate of education (DoE) issued a notification titled “the Delhi School Education (Removal of Difficulties) Order”, directing all schools to constitute SLFRCs by February 10 to determine fees for three academic years starting 2026–27. According to the notification, the SLFRCs were to be formed within 10 days, and the committees were further required to submit details of the proposed fee structure within 14 days of their constitution.

The society’s lawyer, Puneet Mittal, contended before a bench of chief justice DK Upadhyaya and justice Tejas Karia that Section 4 of the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Act, 2025 (Act) mandates schools to hold a physical draw of lots to select five parents from the school’s Parent-Teachers Association (PTA) and three teachers as members of the committee.

Mittal contended that given the large number of parents whose physical presence would be required for the draw of lots, it would not be feasible to complete the entire exercise within the stipulated 10-day period and urged the court to stay the notification, until it takes a final call on other petitions challenging the validity of the Act.

“It’s not contemplated as a draw by computer or software; we’re looking at a draw by physical format present on the school premises, so it is a mammoth exercise. It is not desired, nor designed to be like that. It’s an exercise involving a lot of resources. Can the exercise not wait till the court decides the validity of the Act starting from March 12? There is no escape route,” the counsel submitted.

Mittal also argued that the Act mandates that at least one member of the committee must belong to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, or Socially and Educationally Backward Classes. He argued that compliance with this requirement would effectively compel students and their families to disclose their caste and also result in collection of this data at the stage of granting admissions.

The submission was made in the pleas filed by Forum of Minority Schools, Action Committee of Unaided Recognised Private Schools, Delhi Public School Society, Rohini Educational Society on the ground that the order was contrary to the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Act, 2025 (Act), which provides that such committees must be formed by July 15.

On February 9, the court directed the DoE not to insist on the constitution of the SLFRC until February 20. This interim relief was subsequently extended on multiple occasions, most recently on February 26 until February 27.

During the hearing, a counsel appearing for the Association of Public Schools submitted that the rules framed under the Act require the SLFRCs to support proposed fee structures with “duly audited financial statements.” He pointed out that, for fixing fees for the academic year 2026–27, the rules would necessitate audited financial statements for 2025–26. However, at present, schools would only have audited statements available for 2024–25, making compliance with the requirement impossible.

On February 16, DoE had defended the decision, saying that the same is a “one-time measure”, to facilitate the implementation of a regulated fee structure for the academic session 2026–27, commencing April 1.

It also said that it had originally proposed to implement the Act from the academic year 2025–26, with the presumption that the regulated fees would also continue in the academic year 2026–27 till the SLFRC fixed the fees by the end of August 2026. However, the department later decided not to enforce the Act for 2025–26 and thus, issued the February 1 notification to ensure that students would not face any harm or prejudice during the first quarter of the academic session, up to August 2026.

On Friday, DoE counsel, additional solicitor general SV Raju, is expected to commence with his submissions.