Kerala High Court issues notice to CBSE School on plea against debarment from online classes over late payment of fees

A petition has been filed before the Kerala High Court challenging the debarment of a student from attending online classes for late payment of fees (John Fletcher Vs State of Kerala)..The petition, which also assailed the levy of late fees from the student, contended that the actions by the school were violative of Articles 14, 19, 21 and 21A of the Constitution of India and the Right to Education Act..Justice Anu Sivaraman who heard the case, issued notice to the respondent school and posted the case for hearing next week. .The petition was filed by the father of a Class VI student of the CBSE affiliated Choice School which is run by a charitable institution called the Choice foundation..Arguing against the exorbitant late fees charged by the school even during the pandemic, it was submitted by the petitioner that the school in question "cannot be permitted to be a Shylock. It is not a financial institution which needs to focus itself on profiteering. The school is trying to extract pound of flesh from the petitioner which can never be permitted in law"..It was submitted that the petitioner's daughter was denied access to all online classes for this academic year for non-payment of fees. Upon logging into the schools fee payment portal, he found that his account had been banned and later found out from the school that he would be charged an extra amount of Rs. 26,400 for late payment of fees.Thereafter, it was claimed that he filed a complaint before Permanent Lok Adalat to waive the exorbitant late fee and determine the fee payable for academic year 2020-2021, particularly since there was no utilisation of school facilities and considering the financial constraints faced by families due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Soon after, news reports were published, details of which are included in the petition, mentioning Choice school by name alleging that over 150 students had been facing the same issue. It was claimed by the petitioner that even though the other students have been allowed back into online classes, the school sent him a notice alleging defamation and demanding huge demanding an amount of Rs. 10 crores as compensation. This, it was alleged, amounted to blatant discrimination and victimisation of the petitioner's daughter..According to the petitioner, the actions of the school is violative of Article 21A and as there is a clear ban on the Right to Education of the child, it also violates her rights under Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution. .Further, it was also in contravention to the directions issued by the Supreme Court for the determination of fee structure in 2020-2021, which states that "the school Management shall not debar any student from attending either online classes or physical classes on account of non-payment of fees, arrears of outstanding fees including the instalments... and shall not withhold the results of the examinations of any student on that account.".The petitioner, therefore, approached the court, through advocate Renjith B Marar, seeking directions to be issued to the State of Kerala and Central Board of Secondary Education to initiate appropriate steps to ensure that the school does not continue denying access to classes to his child.