Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, June 3: Parents in the Kashmir valley welcomed on Wednesday the High Court decision directing government to nominate a former judge as chairman of a committee for fixing fee structure in the private schools.
The committee was aborted earlier because the court, hearing a petition of private schools, had stayed the government order that had announced Justice (retired) Bilal Nazki as its chairman.
Justice Nazki moved to Bihar to head its State Human Rights Commission in March last year, rendering the committee headless. On Tuesday, the court dismissed the petition filed by Unaided Private Schools' Coordination Committee which had challenged the formation of the fee-fixing panel.
The decision brought respite for parents who are at the receiving end of private schools, which they say, "fleece in the name of tuition fee." "We hope that from now on these schools won't charge as and when fancy strikes them but with some over-watch.
Charging exorbitant fees, and other charges on some extra-curricular activities had become a trap for us," said Meraj-ud-Din Wakhloo whose ward is enrolled in one of the leading missionary schools in Srinagar.
"The judgement is important as it will make private schools think twice before announcing fee hike which they do every year," said Parvez Qadri, whose son is studying in another leading private school here.
Last year, taking note of the unprecedented flood situation, the court issued order directing all schools except those in Ganderbal not to charge tuition fee and bus fare from the students for September and October 2014.
Most of the prominent schools in the Valley honoured the court ruling. They included Tyndale Biscoe, Burn Hall, Presentation Convent, Mallinson, etc. However, other schools like DPS Budgam brazenly violated the court order and charged both tuition as well as bus fare for the months of September and October 2014, despite the fact that the school remained closed in September and opened for a few days in October.
The court had also issued directions not to increase the fee, which is being charged from the students, and the school managements were directed to file undertakings within before the Registrar Judicial, stating that they have not charged the tuition or bus fee for the months.
While the school managements filed the undertakings, they filed applications seeking vacation of the order by contending that these schools were functioning during the months of September and October 2014 except for few days as the flood situation was not so serious in other areas as in parts of Srinagar city.
On hearing the submissions, the court requested the respective counsels as to whether these petitions may be disposed of by granting liberty to the school managements to approach the fee fixation committee for appropriate directions, such as fixation of proper fee for each standard depending on expenses to be incurred by each school, fixation of bus fare to be collected from the students, book, uniform rates etc.
The counsels readily agreed to the suggestion and submitted that these petitions may be disposed of with such liberty. In another direction, the court termed as "not maintainable" the prayer in one of the PILs, seeking direction to the government to assess the losses to the schools caused by the floods and rebuild such schools with modern and scientific way with modern libraries. "The issue will come within the ambit of flood relief package already announced by the government. If any of management has not been provided with the flood relief for rebuilding of the school buildings, library etc, liberty is granted to such school managements to approach the concerned authority seeking flood relief," the court said and directed the government that if any such request is made, it shall be considered with all-seriousness and appropriate amount be sanctioned as per guidelines finalized by the government. |
