Odisha court reserves judgement on school fee
CUTTACK: The Odisha high court on Tuesday reserved judgement on three PILs seeking exemption of students of private schools from paying school fees because of Covid-induced distress.
The bench of chief justice Mohammad Rafiq and justice B R Sarangi closed hearing on the three PILs and posted the matter to October 19 after the school and mass education department submitted a report on the outcome of mediation over the dispute. The bench directed the petitioners to present their respective written note of submissions by then.
On September 1, the HC had issued an order for mediation of the dispute and directed representatives from Confederation of Odisha Public Schools, representatives of the three PIL petitioners — Odisha Abhibhabak Mahasangha, Mohamed Mustaq and Prahallad Rout — and representatives of Odisha Private Schools Teachers Association to participate in the process to be convened by the secretary of the school and mass education department.
In his report, department principal secretary Satyabrata Sahu said near unanimity could be achieved except for the representative of one of the three PIL petitioners. He said all 14 members had signed an MoU agreeing for waiver of fees in a flat rate.
The flat rate included waiver of 26 per cent for school fees above Rs 1 lakh per annum, 25 per cent for school fees from Rs 72,001 to Rs 1 lakh per annum, 20 per cent for school fees from Rs 48,001 to Rs 72,000 per annum, 15 per cent for school fees from Rs 24,001 to Rs 48,000 per annum, 12 per cent for school fees from Rs 12,001 to Rs 24,000 per annum and 7.5 per cent for school fees from Rs 6,001 to Rs 12,000 per annum.
The HC had asked Sahu to examine whether any unreasonable and excessive fees are being demanded by private educational institutions. “This could not be verified by inspecting various schools with varied fee structure, in view of the restrictions on movement of officials into the school campuses,” Sahu said. In his report Sahu further observed, “It is a fact that due to the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic situation all stakeholders in the education system like schools, teachers, parents as well as the students have been affected.”
Odisha court reserves judgement on school fee row
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