Synopsis: Earlier, a single bench allowed schools to receive 70% of the annual tuition fees paid at the rate at which the fees were collected over the last academic year.
The Rajasthan High Court’s Division Bench has suspended the execution of an order issued by the Court’s Single Judge Bench that allowed schools to collect 70% of the annual tuition fees paid, at the rate at which the fees were collected during the last academic year.
A set of appeals were heard by Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Mahendra Kumar Goyal, challenging the earlier order of the High Court.
Although continuing the execution of the order, schools have now been directed to “await instructions” by the court and do not take any “coercive action” against the students. This direction will stay in force until October 9.
While Two circulars released by the State Government have prompted the litigation. The first circular, dated 7 July, extended the service of the first circular until further notice, ordering private schools to hold off levying fees for three months.
The schools argued that they had infrastructural facilities to maintain and that their non-teaching employees had to pay, while also shouldering the costs of online classes and wages for teachers.
The Court had observed in the Single Bench interim order that parents could not be burdened with heavy fee requirements. On the other hand, it was pointed out that schools should not be made to unilaterally bear the burden of maintaining their facilities.
The Judge reasoned that the State had not recognised these similarly significant interests when it released its notice. Therefore, a direction was given by the Single Judge to balance the needs of both the schools and the students in the pandemic situation.
To this end, a directive was issued by the Court to collect 70% of the annual tuition fees.
The Judge had, however, stressed that at the point of final disposal, a more detailed examination of these issues would be undertaken.
It is proposed that the matter before the Division Bench will next be taken up on 5 October 2020.
While Sunil Samdaria, Shashank Agarwal and Mahendra Shandilya appeared in person as the petitioners, Rishikesh Maharshi, Ravi Sharma and AAG Rajesh Maharshi represented the other petitioners.
Advocates Amit Chhangani, Shailesh Prakash Sharma, Dinesh Yadav, Abhay Jain, Parinitoo Jain, Rishabh Khandelwal, Kapil Sharma, Anuroop Singhi, Senior Advocate K.K. Sharma, and Advocate Alankrita Sharma, Advocate Dr. RDSS Kharlia, Sangeeta Kumari Sharma, Sumitra Choudhary, and Rajesh Maharshi AAG represented the respondents.