Education department pulled up for ‘vague’ report on fees

NEW DELHI - The Delhi High Court Friday pulled up the the state government’s Directorate of Education (DoE) for filing a “vague” and incomplete status report about the fee hike in various schools of the capital.

A division bench of Justices A.K.Sikri and Siddharth Mridul told the department to file a complete status report by April 23.

According to the report filed by the DoE, 55 schools approached it for increasing the fees on an annual basis. The court ordered last year that no school would be allowed to increase the fees on its own and will seek the directorate’s permission for the purpose.

According to DoE, it has allowed four schools to hike their fees.

However, amongst the four schools, DoE allowed Sanskriti school to hike their fees by Rs.1,510 for the general category when the school itself asked for Rs.1,250.

“It is a strange thing. When the school is demanding less, then how has the DoE allowed them a higher hike?” asked advocate Ashok Agarwal, who is fighting the case for the parents who have moved court against the fee hike.

The court also directed the directorate to file a status report on the 99 complaints pending regarding the fee hike in public schools.