Indore: Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh Bench High Court stayed the state government's order and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) instructions on collecting only tuition fee during the lockdown period.
“This Court, after taking into account the arguments by learned counsel for the parties and keeping in view the earlier judgment passed by the Division Bench in Writ Petition No.5975 of 2015, is of the considered opinion that the impugned orders dated 24.04.2020 and 16.05.2020 deserve to be stayed and is accordingly, stayed,” Judge SC Sharma said.
State government and CBSE orders were challenged by the Association of Unaided CBSE schools, which was represented by advocate Gaurav Chhabra. About 70 CBSE schools are part of this association.
After staying the orders, the court also instructed the association, “It is made clear that the petitioner / institution shall not be charging any sum towards unincurred expenses during the period of lockdown (till the schools are closed) such as transportation and mess.”
“As per the circulars, schools cannot charge any fee other than tuition fee and there can be no hike in fee in the academic session,” advocate Gaurav Chhabra representing the association shared. The schools are challenging the circulars and instructions.
Chhabra further argued that there is no Act in the State of Madhya Pradesh, which permits the State Government to fix the fees in respect of the school affiliated to CBSE and cited previous judgement from Writ Petition No.8025/2020 (Association of Unaided CBSE School Society v/s The State of Madhya Pradesh & Others) on 10.04.2017.
Schools are required to pay full salary to the teachers and non-teaching staff, and therefore, they are recovering fees and tuition fees excluding unincurred expenses,” Chhabra said.
He added that schools are not charging for mess and transport charges as neither the kitchens nor buses are running during the lockdown period, but other expenses of the year cannot be put on hold.
There is an application for intervention also filed by the Parents Association and arguments canvassed by the learned counsel for the intervenor were heard. The orders are not stayed as of now, the court said.
As per HC orders, a detailed reply be filed within four weeks by all the respondents, as all the respondents have been served and the matter has been listed for 28th July, 2020.
