The Uttarakhand High Court has stated that as per the education secretary’s order dated June 22, school management cannot force parents of school children to deposit fees. The schools can only charge tuition fees from those attending online classes. Directing the state to make chief education officers the nodal officers to address complaints of guardians of students, the division bench of chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice RC Khulbe disposed of the case.
Dehradun resident Japendra Singh had filed a PIL in the high court contending that private schools were forcing parents to pay fees during the lockdown in the name of online classes. The petitioner had also stated that forcing the children to attend online classes was exerting a negative impact on their health. Further, in many rural and mountainous areas of the state, there are network issues and many people also lack smart phones and other gadgets to enable their children to attend online classes, the petitioner had stated.