330 Delhi schools told to refund excess fee

NEW DELHI : Indicting as many as 80 more private schools in the Capital for charging excess tuition fees in 2009, the Delhi High Court-appointed Justice Anil Dev Singh Committee has recommended refund of the extra amounts levied by them to the parents.So far 330 schools have been asked to refund the excess fees.Submitting its fifth interim report to a Division Bench of Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Siddharth Mridul on Friday, the Committee described the fees charged by these schools as unjustified.
The Bench later directed the Delhi Government to file a status report as to how many schools which were asked by the Court to refund the fees on the recommendations of the Committee had complied with it.The Bench sought the status report when counsel for the petitioners in the matter, Ashok Agarwal, alleged that so far a total of 330 schools had been asked to refund the fees by the Court, but no schools had refunded the excess fees. He further submitted that these schools had rather increased the fees.The Committee also recommended that the unjustified fees charged by these schools be refunded along with 9 per cent interest per annum as mandated by the High Court.
The Committee also found unreliable the records of 26 of the 80 schools recommended for refund of the fees. It recommended special inspection of their records.No schools whose records were examined by the Committee were able to justify their claim for a hike in the fees over and above the ceiling permitted, the interim report said.Fifty four of the 80 schools had hiked the fees taking undue advantage of the order of the Directorate of Education of the Delhi Government in 2009 as they had no requirement for additional funds, the Committee said.
These schools had sufficient funds at their disposal out of which the additional burden due to the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission could have been absorbed, the report stated.The additional revenue generated on account of the fee hike by the schools was more than what was required to fully absorb the implementation of the Pay Commission’s report, the Committee said. Report-The Hindu