RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Aug.11: Private unaided schools have begun to collect the last year’s dues from parents citing an order of the Supreme Court, which was said to be applicable in Madhya Pradesh and Rajashthan.
One of the parents, whose son is a student of Jawahar Vidya Mandir (JVM) located in Mecon’s Shyamali Colony, informed about the situation saying that the school citing the order of apex court in civil appeal 1724 of 2021 arising out of SLP No 27881 of 2019 dated 03.05.2021 and Delhi High Court order with respect to writ petition number 7526/2020 dated 31.05 2021, issued notice to him and other parents to clear the annual fee and development fee of their wards of previous session 2020-21.
“The school has given a deadline of December 31 to pay the due amount in six equal installments. It is going to put an additional financial burden on me and parents like me who are yet to recover from the impact of economic slowdown during the corona pandemic,” he said, sharing the copy of the notice signed by school principal Samarjit Jana.
Incidentally, the Jharkhand Unaided Private Schools Association has moved the Jharkhand High Court challenging the State Government order for charging only tuition fees in view of the pandemic. The case is still pending in court.
The JVM notice suggests that in order to ensure that parents do not start murmuring citing financial problems in the payment of previous academic session’s annual and development fee, the school management has informed them about the leniency the school has shown towards them.
The notice informs parents that the school will also implement a partial payment system for the above heads to ensure that they can pay as per their choice by filling up the amount. The school has also given the option to parents to pay the due amount in single or two installments if they are convenient to do so.
While requesting to pay the dues, the school has also announced 15 percent deduction in annual and development fees in accordance with the court order and informed parents that the deduction will be incorporated on the fee portal by coming Independence Day.
For those who had already paid annual and development fees for the previous session, the school has decided to adjust their discounted amount in any quarter of the fee.
The school has decided to return a discounted amount to the students of class 12 (20-21) and class X (20-21), who are leaving the school after board results and have already paid the above fees. For this, the school has asked their parents to submit a refund form along with the payment receipt at the account section to get the discounted amount transferred to their accounts.
Contacted Principal Jana for his comment on the issue, he expressed his inability to talk on the matter saying he was busy carrying out some emergent family responsibility and suggested calling later.
Asked Principal of Delhi Public School, Dr Ram Singh, whether he has also issued any such notice to parents, he said ‘no so far we do not have any plan to collect previous years due.’ Principal of D.A.V. Hehal, M.K.Sinha, said there is no system of collecting development charges in his school.
However, a section of parents informed that many schools in the city have started contemplating collecting previous years’ development and annual fee though formal notice has yet to come in this matter.
The court’s direction suggests that management of private unaided schools can collect annual school fees from their students for the previous year but by providing a deduction of 15 percent on that amount in lieu of un-utilised facilities by the students during the relevant period of academic year 202021. The amount so payable by the concerned students be paid in six equal monthly installments. The court, however, gives liberty to schools to give further concessions to their students or to evolve different patterns for giving concessions.
While allowing collecting fees, the court also directed schools not to take any coercive steps against students due to non-payment of fees. It has asked schools not to debar any student from attending their online physical classes or withhold the results of the examination on account of non-payment of fees.
If any individual request is made by the parent/ ward finding it difficult to remit annual fees for the academic year 2020-21 in the above terms, the court directed the school Management to consider such representation on a case to case basis sympathetically.
The court also directed schools not to withhold the name of any student for ensuing board examination for Class X and XII on the ground of non-payment of fees or arrears for the academic year 2020-21.
Contacted general secretary of Dhanbad Abhivavak Mahasangh, Manoj Kumar Mishra, for his comment on the matter he expressed his concern over the development taking place in JVM.
“Such a demand from the private unaided schools in the state is unjustified. The apex court order has come in the context of Delhi and Rajasthan. The matter related to the unaided private-public school of the state is still pending in Jharkhand High Court. In Jharkhand the situation is different. The Jharkhand government did not make a Disaster Management Act base to restrain schools from taking development or annual fee or any other fee except tuition fee during a pandemic but made CBSE rule and Right to Education Act base for the same. Apart from this, the school can not be a profit-making organisation; it has to run on a no-profit and no-loss basis,” Mishra said.
President of Jharkhand Parents Association, Ajay Rai, echoed the same. “When the decision was being taken by the government to only charge tuition fee, all school management was present. The court matter was never raised in the meeting,” Rai said.
