Rajasthan HC disposes of PIL to waive school fees amid COVID-19 Lockdown given State's decision to defer due date by 3 months

The Rajasthan High Court on Thursday disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea seeking a waiver of fees by private school authorities citing inability to pay the same owing to the extended Lockdown situation. .The Court, however, refused to interfere on being appraised that the State Government has taken a policy decision on the matter. .A Division Bench comprising of Justice Sabina and Justice Chandra Kumar Songara passed the above order while dealing with a plea filed by Advocate Rajeev Bhushan Bansal..Bansal had contended that due to lockdown situation, parents were unable to pay the necessary fees to the private school authorities. Hence, it was prayed that directions be issued to waive the school fees required to be paid..In response, Additional Advocate General Ganesh Meena, appearing on behalf of the State government, informed the Court that it had taken a policy decision on April 9 to defer the due payment of private schools fee, as on March 15 for three months. .The Court was further told that the name of any student on account of non-payment of fee for the said period will not be struck off from the school rolls..Keeping this in view, the Division Bench held that there was no ground for additional interference by the Court at this stage. With these observations, the petition was disposed of. .[Read order here].On a related note, the Uttarakhand High Court had recently passed an interim order prohibiting private schools in the state from sending emails and WhatsApp messages asking parents of students to pay tuition fee for conducting online classes during the COVID-19 lockdown period..Cannot send WhatsApp messages, emails asking parents to pay children's fees during lockdown: Uttarakhand HC directs private schools