The Directorate of Education (DoE) of the Delhi Government has decided to issue a show-cause notice to Apeejay School for “failing” to comply with an order to roll-back its “unjustified” fee hike.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal approved the proposal of the DoE to take over the management of the school, the office of the Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in a statement. “The decision was sent to the Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal,” it said.
“The Kejriwal Government will not let any kind of injustice prevail, we are with the parents. They should be assured that we will stand with them against such injustice and not let them face any difficulties,” Sisodia said.
“The DoE decided to issue a show-cause notice for taking over the management of Apeejay School, Sheikh Sarai after the school repeatedly failed to comply with multiple orders of the Delhi Government asking it to roll-back its unjustified fee hike,” it said.
The DoE had conducted an inspection of the financial statement of the school for fiscal years 2012-2013 to 2018-2019. After a detailed inspection of the records the department found that the total funds for the year 2018-2019 amounted to Rs 49,72,45,586 of which the expenditure was estimated to be Rs 18,87,02,422 implying that there was a net surplus of Rs 30,85,43,164 upon which the department concluded that the school had no actual need to increase the fees.
“In the same regard, the directorate refused to accept the proposed fee structure of the school for the academic session 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. The directorate then issued notices to the school, asking them why the recognition of the school should not be cancelled or why the Government should not take over the management of the school,” it added.
The directorate issued several notices to the school, asking them to stop charging the increased fee and submit a reply, which the school did not do. The school had approached the High Court (HC) against the directorate’s order however; the HC endorsed the DoE’s order asking the school to roll back the increased fees, it added.