Ahmedabad/Gandhinagar:

In a major relief to middle class in the state, the Gujarat High Court today rejected the demand of self financed schools to declare unconstitutional the Gujarat Self Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, passed in March this year.

The division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi, which had on August 31 reserved its order on a bunch of petitions filed by over 1900 self-financed schools challenging the state government’s move to regulate fees through an Act, today pronounced its verdict. The court has ordered the implementation of the act from 2018 session.

The annual fee structure prescribed in the Act is Rs 15,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 27,000 for primary, secondary and higher secondary schools, respectively.
Under the Act the state has been divided in four zones of Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara and needed to have an FRC in each of them to regulate the fees. Each committee is to be coordinated by the concerned district education officers. It is to be headed by a retired district judge or a retired IPS officer not below the rank of Additional DGP or an IAS officer not below the rank of Principal Secretary as the chairperson. Whereas, other members of the FRC will be government-appointed engineer or valuer, a chartered accountant, an educationist of repute or a representative of school managements of the concerned zone. The FRC has been given wide powers to verify the justifications given by private schools for the fees being charged by them.

Any school charging more than the prescribed fees will have to justify their fees before the FRC. In case of violation of the Act, the concerned school can face punitive steps which include de-recognition on third violation. For the first and second violation they will have to pay Rs 5 and 10 lakh as penalty.

Advocate of Guardians association Rohit Patel said that the court has held the act and the Fee Regulatory Committee (FRC) valid. The schools willing to take more than prescribed fees will have to approach the competent authority within 6 weeks. The court has also however rejected the demand of guardians to give them representation in the FRC. The schools will also have to declare their income and other details within 3 weeks.

Minister Bhupendra Chudasama welcomed the decision of the court terming it a historic day for education world. ‘It is also a reply to Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi as he had several times alleged during election campaign that our government was doing commercialization of education. Now the verdict has proved that we are pro people. The act will be implemented in letter and spirit. This order will have its effect not only on Gujarat but the whole nation and set the direction,’ he said adding that if the schools approach the apex court, the government will also put forth its point effectively. On the occasion the Principal Secretary Education Sunaina Tomar said that the whole infrastructure for the implementation of the act was ready and a web portal for online application by schools to FRCs would also be launched soon that there won’t be any physical contact between the two sides.

‘The HC has asked the schools to approach the government within six weeks on increasing the fee limit in individual cases. The government after getting the application in this regard will have to take a decision within six weeks. It should also be noted that if a school charged the fee much below the prescribed limits till now wishes to increase it up to the permissible limit by an abrupt increase, it won’t be allowed. So far the complain regarding school and punitive action was concerned, the government can initiate a suo moto action as well as on any individual complaint from a guardian/guardians or through FRC. The Schools now as per the law will have to maintain a single bank account both for fees collection as well as payment of its teachers,’ she added.

The court had reserved the order in the case after the private schools, including those affiliated to the state education board, Central Board of School Education (CBSE), and international boards submitted their arguments in writing as directed by the court. The private schools had challenged the Act arguing that it is unconstitutional because self-financed schools get no aid from the state and hence the government has no jurisdiction over such schools.

According to the state government, out of 15,927 schools to be regulated under the Act, 11,174 charge lower fees than what has been determined by the government, 841 have sought for determination of fees by the committee, and 2,363 did not file any affidavit nor did they submit any proposal before the committee, while 2,385 have challenged it before the High Court. All such schools will have to approach the FRCs within six weeks to avoid punitive action.

Meanwhile, guardians across the state looked in jubilant mood on hearing the court’s verdict. Many of them distributed sweets and demanded quick and thorough implementation of the act.

DeshGujarat