Several private schools in the Capital may have to fork out a large amount of money to guardians for “unjustly” hiking the fee. A committee, set up by the Delhi High Court to look into the arbit fee hike issue, has found that 47 private schools in the Capital increased their fee unjustly in 2009. The panel has recommended that excess fee should be reimbursed with nine per cent interest.
In the third report since 2012, the Justice Anil Dev Singh Committee, constituted by the High Court, examined fee hike by 74 schools and recommended a refund of excess fee from 47 schools, among which are the well-known Amity International School, Saket; Modern School, Vasant Kunj; Bhatnagar International School, Vasant Kunj; Doon Public School, Paschim Vihar; Birla Vidya Niketan, Pushp Vihar and others.
Doubting the financial records of some schools, the report called for special inspection in two out of the 47 schools under the radar, Prerna Public School (Vikaspuri) and Rajdhani Public School (Deoli). The three-member panel, headed by former Rajasthan High Court Chief Justice Anil Dev Singh, was formed in 2011 and was given the responsibility to examine over a 1,000 private schools in the city. So far, the committee has examined 432 schools and held 169 schools guilty for hiking their fees.
While submitting the report before a division bench of Acting Chief Justice BD Ahmed and Justice Siddharth Mridul, Justice Anil Dev Singh resigned from the Committee saying that after submitting a report on 104 more schools by October 31, he would take a step back. While adjourning the matter to September 4, the Court said there is a need to first appoint a head for the Committee.
The Committee submitted its first report in August last year wherein it examined 200 schools and had recommended 64 schools refund excess fees with interest. A second report was filed in March this year where 145 schools were sussed out and 58 asked to refund. The reports followed an earlier order by the Court hearing a PIl of NGO Social Jurist that accused private schools of unjustly raising fees.