Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court today refused to grant any interim relief to the operators of self financed schools from the provisions of Gujarat Self-Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017 which has put a cap on the fees and put various other restrictions on such schools.

The division bench comprising Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi however admitted the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by three of such school operators and issued notices to the education department and others concerned.

The petitioners have challenged various provisions of the act including the functioning of the Fee Regulation committees. They also have questioned the putting of cap on fees.

The court, which refused any interim relief in the matter, issued notice to the education department seeking various information from it including the total number of self financed schools in Gujarat and their bifurcation as those affiliated with CBSE and Gujarat Board.

The court fixed June 15 as the next date of hearing.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama welcomed the court’s move to not to give any interim relief to the school operators today. He said that the honourable court has sought some date pertaining to the act which would be provided.

Notably the minister also announced 3 of the 4 Zonal Fee Regulation Committees (FRC) today. The PIL has also raised the issue of the non-existence of these committees and asking for undertakings from them about the fees in the name of FRC’s.

Under the Act, the Gujarat government has kept a cap of Rs 15,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 27,000 for private primary, secondary and higher secondary schools respectively. Any school charging fees more than this 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.

DeshGujarat