The Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed the State government to inform the court whether a specified authority in the Education Department could be asked to look into the complaints of overcharging of fee by schools, and to verify and scrutinise the income and expenditure of CBSE schools.
Justice Devan Ramachandran passed the directive when a batch of petitions against excess fees demanded by certain CBSE schools came up for hearing.
The court took the CBSE to task for not issuing a circular/notification directing all the affiliated schools not to charge fees in excess of the actual expenses incurred for the current academic year and to verify the statements of income and expenditure.
The court observed that it was rather distressing that the CBSE had not chosen to issue such a circular till now. The CBSE had taken a stand that it was not in a position to verify the income and expenditure statements of these schools. But it did not say the reasons for not doing so.
The CBSE appeared to be washing its hands off completely from the issue at hand and placing it squarely on the shoulders of the State government, asserting that the affiliation bylaws provided for the government to make provisions with respect to the fee structure and such other matters.
The court, therefore, said that it was left without any other option but to ask the government to propose a mechanism to implement the circular issued by the State government on the fee structure of schools.
The State government submitted that it had complied with the court’s directives and issued a circular on December 2 intimating all schools not to charge anything in excess of the actual expenditure and not to make provision for surplus or profits in the 2020-21 academic year.
The court directed the petitioners and their parents to pay the first term fee before December 17. If they did not choose to pay the fee by December 17, all the interim orders passed in their favour would stand automatically vacated.
