Court stays CBSE order on fee waiver for girls

The decision was taken after a local school filed a petition stating that the article violated the Constitution.

The Delhi High Court has stayed Central Board of Secondary Education's circular directing all affiliated schools to waiver fees of girl students who were the only children of their parents.

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The move came on Friday after a petition was filed by Mount Carmel School. It said that the article, applicable to girls from Class 6 onwards, violated Article 30 of the Constitution.

Judge Vikramjit Sen has sought responses from the CBSE, the Central Government and the Director of Education of Delhi. It has asked them to file their replies within four weeks. The matter will next be heard on March 27.

Mount Carmel, through its lawyers Romy Chacko and AK Jha, asked that the circular be annulled as it violated the constitutional article guaranteeing the right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions.

It said that it was a minority educational institution entitled to constitutional protection and argued that the restrictions imposed by the CBSE could not apply to a minority educational institution due to the constitutional protection given to them to fix fees.