The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed that none of the 145 schools before it in connection with petitions regarding fees of the institutions during the Covid-19 pandemic will deny promotion to any student to the next session or withhold their report card till further orders.
A division bench comprising justices I P Mukerji and Moushumi Bhattacharya directed that all students will be allowed to join the higher class in the new session and will be provided the normal educational facilities.
“None of the 145 schools/teaching institutions shall deny promotion to any student to the next session or withhold their report card till further orders,” the bench directed.
To ensure that the schools do not suffer any deficiency of funds, the bench directed joint special officers appointed by the court to go into the dispute regarding fee liability and to come to a decision in the matter. It directed that the joint special officers will also look into complaints of arbitrary increase in school fees during the Covid-19 pandemic period and take a decision in the matter with regard to fees actually payable by the guardians/ students. The division bench directed that each of the guardians will make payment of the fees determined as payable by the joint special officers to the schools within two weeks of such determination.
The order came on complaints by some guardians before the court that authorities of some schools were arbitrarily not granting promotion to students, withholding their report cards and not allowing them to join the higher class in the new session on the pretext that school fees have not been paid. It was also alleged that the schools are charging a much larger amount than that directed to be charged by interim orders of the court. Denying the allegations, lawyers of the schools submitted that that fee was sought to be paid by a significant number of guardians/students in a haphazard manner and much lower than the fees required to be paid as per the court’s earlier order.
Acting on a PIL and several other related petitions in which parents of students and 145 schools were involved, the high court had on October 13, 2020, directed that the schools and other educational institutions could only charge fees for essential services rendered online, with 20 per cent deduction.
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