Allahabad High Court will be deciding on the plea seeking 50 percent reduction in the state schools' tuition fee until their reopening on January 18. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery today directed the Standing Counsel to get in touch with the state government regarding the matter under Uttar Pradesh Self - Financed Independent Schools (Fee Regulation) Act, 2018.
The plea for reduction in the school tuition fee was filed by the High Court Bar Association, District Bar Association, UP Vyapari Mandal and other private parties.
They had asserted that schools taking the tuition fee in the name of online education is against the rules. The petition further said that conducting online classes is much cheaper than than holding the physical classes in the schools and thus "in the interest of all the canons of justice, equity, and good conscience, the fees of 'SitAt-Home Education', can by no means be equated with or the same as the older actual/physical education of the pre-COVID-19 Era”.
They had further requested for waiver in fee charged for additional activities including extra-curricular, sports, library and facilities not being utilised during the online education.
The petition also requested for fee waivers for CBSE and ICSE-regulated schools while calling for an uniform fee-structure throughout the schools until the online classes are being held.
Earlier in June, Allahabad High Court had dismissed a PIL seeking complete waiver of school fees, including tuition fees by private schools, amid the pandemic.
Various states had requested for relief in the school fee including Delhi which had accepted the plea and ordered to only charge the tuition fee.
