Bombay HC stays government resolution that told schools not to charge increased fees

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Friday stayed a

government resolution

(GR) of May 8 which had barred schools from charging new and increased fees for the 2020-21 academic year.

Four petitions were filed before the high court seeking the setting aside of the GR for being excessive, unlawful and unconstitutional. The petitioners included Association of Indian Schools, Kasegaon Education Society, Global Education Foundation and Sant Dnyaneshwar Mauli Sanstha.

The schools argued that under the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Fee) Act, the state cannot issue directions that are inconsistent with the act and regulation of fees cannot be done in the manner in which it was done by the state.

The petitions said that pursuant to the GR, the state education department had written to schools and directed them not to insist on payment of fees for 2019-20 and not to increase the fees for the forthcoming academic year.

At the hearing via videoconferencing, the petitioners represented by counsel Milind Sathe, Pravin Samdani, Prateek Sakseria along with advocates Amogh Singh, Nivit Srivastava and Vidhi Partners argued that the GR was not valid as the state had no power under either the Fees Act or the Disaster Management Act to regulate fees for private schools and to decide what fees can be charged for the upcoming academic year.

It was argued that such a decision impinged on the constitutional rights under Article 19(1)(g) of school managements “to practise any profession, carry on any occupation, trade or business”.

For the state, assistant government pleader B V Samant and Manish Pabale appeared and made brief submissions in the hearing on Tuesday, arguing that the state had powers to issue the GR under the Fee Act and the Disaster Management Act. On Friday, a bench of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Riyaz Chagla posted the matter for later but till then stayed the GR and all communications issued by the education department to schools for compliance.