Delhi HC stays school fee hike order
A bench of Justice S Muralidhar and Justice IS Mehta stayed the order till April 30. The High Court also issued a notice to the school and sought to know their stand.
The Delhi High Court (HC), on Friday, stayed a single judge-order passed in a matter of Bal Bharti Public School which had held that the Directorate of Education does not have the power to audit the accounts of private schools.
A bench of Justice S Muralidhar and Justice IS Mehta stayed the order till April 30. The High Court also issued a notice to the school and sought to know their stand.
The order comes on a plea by the Delhi government challenging the single judge order allowing schools to increase fee.
The single judge had said private schools have “absolute autonomy”. The government had challenged this order on the grounds that the single judge had failed to appreciate a division bench.
Earlier, a division bench of the Delhi High Court had held that all schools operating on government or public land
will have to get prior sanction for fee hike.
For that, they would also have to get their accounts audited by the Directorate of Education and take permission to increase fee.
According to advocate Santosh Kumar Tripathi, counsel for Delhi government, the Friday order will be binding on all the other schools that had obtained orders similar to that of Bal Bharati to increase fee.
“The order passed by the High Court on Friday will impact other schools also and can be used as a precedent,” he said, adding that he would also file appeals against these other schools as well.
Despite repeated attempts, advocate Kamal Gupta, lawyer of Bal Bharti Public School, could not be reached for a comment. The matter would be now heard on April 30.