A recent judgment of the Gujarat High Court that had upheld the capping of school fees in the State has been challenged in the Supreme Court..The High Court had upheld the constitutional validity of the Gujarat Self Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017, which capped the fees of schools in the state of Gujarat..The Act had prescribed school fees at Rs. 15,000/p.a. for primary education, Rs. 25,000/p.a. for secondary education and Rs. 27,000/p.a. for higher secondary education, whilst providing that the schools should not charge more than the previous year’s fees. The High Court had also granted liberty to self-financing schools to submit proposals to the competent authority for prescribing fees..An appeal filed by the Federation of Self Finance Schools in the Supreme Court came up for hearing today before a Bench of Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao..Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for the petitioner. He apprised the Bench of the fees of Kendriya Vidyalayas, which he claimed was fixed at ninety eight thousand per student, while pursuant to the Act, private schools in Gujarat have to cap it at twenty eight thousand per student..Attorney General KK Venugopal replied that if this is the case, then such representation should be made before the fee fixation committee..During the course of hearing, ASG Tushar Mehta argued that representations are to be made only by schools charging more than Rs. 25,000 per annum as school fees. He also informed the Bench that 80 per cent of schools in the State have no objection to the same..“What else could they do?” quipped Sibal at this juncture..Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that there is an order by the committee which has reduced the fees from 8500 to 7000..The Bench, after hearing the arguments, ordered that no coercive action be taken against the schools which have not yet made appearance before the fee regulatory committee..The matter will now be heard on February 1.
A recent judgment of the Gujarat High Court that had upheld the capping of school fees in the State has been challenged in the Supreme Court..The High Court had upheld the constitutional validity of the Gujarat Self Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017, which capped the fees of schools in the state of Gujarat..The Act had prescribed school fees at Rs. 15,000/p.a. for primary education, Rs. 25,000/p.a. for secondary education and Rs. 27,000/p.a. for higher secondary education, whilst providing that the schools should not charge more than the previous year’s fees. The High Court had also granted liberty to self-financing schools to submit proposals to the competent authority for prescribing fees..An appeal filed by the Federation of Self Finance Schools in the Supreme Court came up for hearing today before a Bench of Justices SA Bobde and L Nageswara Rao..Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for the petitioner. He apprised the Bench of the fees of Kendriya Vidyalayas, which he claimed was fixed at ninety eight thousand per student, while pursuant to the Act, private schools in Gujarat have to cap it at twenty eight thousand per student..Attorney General KK Venugopal replied that if this is the case, then such representation should be made before the fee fixation committee..During the course of hearing, ASG Tushar Mehta argued that representations are to be made only by schools charging more than Rs. 25,000 per annum as school fees. He also informed the Bench that 80 per cent of schools in the State have no objection to the same..“What else could they do?” quipped Sibal at this juncture..Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that there is an order by the committee which has reduced the fees from 8500 to 7000..The Bench, after hearing the arguments, ordered that no coercive action be taken against the schools which have not yet made appearance before the fee regulatory committee..The matter will now be heard on February 1.
