Mumbai: The Divisional Fee Regulatory Committee (DFRC) passed an order to the Indian Education Society (IES) to refund 15% of the total school fees charged during the academic year 2021-22.
A complaint was filed by parents from Orion School, Dadar, run by the IES. The fees for 2021-22 in that school were between ₹84,722 and ₹1,07,570.
On November 17, Shashikant B Savale, chairman of DFRC, passed the order.
“The educational institute is hereby directed to give a discount of 15% in the fees leviable from the students in the primary and secondary schools run by it for the year 2021-2022,” he said.
“If the fee is already collected then the amount of discount may be paid by transferring such amount in the account in any mode or by adjusting it towards the payments due by the end of this academic year 2022-2023 or with the consent of parents/guardian towards the fees of the next year 2023-24,” Savale added.
The aggrieved parents had approached the committee following a judgement by the Supreme Court as well as a government notification by the state of Maharashtra asking to reduce fees in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A statement from IES said, “The state government has issued a Government Resolution (GR) calling upon all schools not to increase the fees for the academic year 2020-21. We decided to implement the GR and it did not affect any fee increase.”
IES asked the parents to pay the same fees as that of 2019-20, which again was approved by the Parents Teachers Association’s Executive Committee (PTA-EC), it added. The Bombay high court, by their judgement and order dated 08.05.2020, held that the GR dated 08.05.2020 did not apply to those schools which had fixed/declared their fees before 08.05.2020.
As per the order, the school had challenged the maintainability of the complaint as it was not submitted by 25% of the total strength of the parents in the school as per the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Fees) Act 2011 as amended in 2019. However, DFRC highlighted that “if the provision of 25% is treated as mandatory, the committee will have to allow illegalities also only because there is less number of appellant/complainants on record and thereby it will invalidate a genuine proceeding.”
The school in its response to the committee had also said that the school did not increase fees after 2018 and for the year 2021-22, it is charging the same fees as was increased in 2018. However, the DFRC rejecting this submission said “The discount of 15% is granted by the Supreme Court and in the light, almost all the states have drawn notifications giving directions to the schools in their state.”