Friday, August 3, 2018

Allahabad High Court sends notice to CBSE, ICSE on school fees fixing in private schools


Allahabad High Court has sent notices to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) instructing them to file their response on a PIL seeking to regulate exorbitant fees charged by self-financed private schools.

The High Court has sought the response from the boards within four weeks and more than that. A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Abdul Moin passed the order on the PIL filed by Laik Ahmad.


This is what PIL demands


The PIL demanded the establishment of a fee regularity commission headed by a retired high court judge to regulate fees to be fixed by private schools.

The two boards should use their powers to control private schools in fixing fees "as they cannot shut their eyes after grating recognition to run a school".

The petitioner demands immediate action


In view of the delay in passing of a proposed legislation to be tabled in the UP Legislature to control fees charged by private schools, the petitioner had also sought that till they said enactment is passed by the Legislature, the UP government should be directed to issue some circular to control the fees to be charged during the 2018-19 session.

The petitioner's counsel Sandeep Yadav pleaded that in Gujarat, the government enacted a law in 2017 to regulate the fees and it was affirmed by the Gujarat High Court.

Seeking the HC's intervention, the petitioner has demanded immediate action by the state government on the issue.