Court issues notice to AAP government, seeks ledger details from north-east Delhi institution

The Delhi High Court on Monday said it would seek implementation of the recommendations of a panel set up by it to look into the excess fee charged by private schools here on the pretext of implementing the Sixth Pay Commission.

A Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Najmi Waziri also said that the schools could not have recovered from the students by way of fee more than what was required to be defrayed to teachers under the 6th Pay Commission.

Panel recommendations

It made the observations while hearing a private school’s plea for recall of the Justice Anil Dev Singh committee recommendations to refund excess fee.

The application has also challenged a May 29 notice of the Directorate of Education (DoE) ordering refund of the excess fee charged by schools, failing which the institutions could face de-recognition or takeover by the department.

The court issued a notice to the Delhi government and sought its response by September 6 on the school’s application, which claimed that it had been paying its teachers as per the Sixth Pay Commission from 2009 onwards.

The Bench told north-east Delhi based Siddharth International School that it would have to show from its account ledgers the amount it was paying to its teachers prior to Sixth Pay Commission and what was paid after it came into force.

It sought the ledger details as the school in its application had not given any specifics regarding the payments it had claimed to have made.

During the hearing, the Bench was informed that similar pleas were pending before a single-judge Bench which had declined to stay the panel’s recommendations or the DoE’s order.

The single judge had also said that an interim order would be passed only if the parties concerned deposited the entire tuition fee and the development fee, along with an interest of 9% per annum, as recommended by the committee.

The court, however, made it clear that it would seek implementation of the recommendations.

531 schools under lens

On May 31, the DoE had told the court that private schools which did not refund the excess fee charged by them would face de-recognition or takeover.

After examining 1,092 private schools, the panel had said that 531 of them had charged excess fee and recommended that the money be refunded with 9% interest. It had also recommended an inspection of 247 schools.

The HC had set up the panel and issued directions for refund of excess fee in 2011 on a plea by NGO Delhi Abhibhavak Mahasangh.

Contempt proceedings

Thereafter, the NGO had moved the court claiming that over 500 private schools were yet to refund Rs. 350 crore of excess fee.

It had also sought initiation of contempt proceedings against all such institutions.

To ensure compliance of the panel’s recommendations, the DoE had on May 29 issued a notice to several defaulting schools, telling them that failure to refund the excess fees as recommended by the committee could lead to their de-recognition or taking over of their management by the department.