HC fee judgment comes as breather for many parents

The Delhi High court's decision to disallow schools from charging tuition fee three months in advance has brought smiles to the faces of many parents. HT reports.

The Delhi High court's decision to disallow schools from charging tuition fee three months in advance has brought smiles to the faces of many parents.

Since the lump sum three months' free is huge, a large number of parents had been suffering.

"We faced a lot of problems because of the schools' ways. The accumulated amount is usually huge and used to come as a sudden burden. The high court's decision has come as a big relief," said Rakesh Saini, parent of a child who studies in an east Delhi school.

And it was not just paying a huge amount in one go that had the parents worried. Many of them said that getting the schools to refund the fee they had already paid was difficult if they pulled out their child in the middle of an academic year.

"Getting a refund from schools is problematic as they make you fill out scores of forms. Of course, it takes more than a few days to get the money back. Not only this, some schools also deny the refund. After this judgment, parents will not stand to lose much money," said Meenakshi Yadav, a resident of Model Town.

Schools, meanwhile, have said they will honour the judgment. "We have always honoured all the judgments and it will be the same in this case. But the autonomy of private schools is being scuttled every passing day," said a principal of a prominent central Delhi school.

"It is not like schools were raising the fee. All they were doing was asking for the sum in advance, as a lot of parents had suggested it. Even the directorate of education had issued a notification allowing us to do the same. We will have to go through the whole judgment before commenting any further on the matter," she added.