Courts don’t have expertise to decide on micro financial planning of educational institutes: HC

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court has held that courts are not equipped to determine issues related to charging and utilisation of fee by educational institutes with any mathematical precision, and such disputes should normally be decided by the relevant regulatory authority on the basis of material produced before it.

The question before the court was that whether the lockdown imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and resultant curtailment of educational facilities entitle the students to a reduction in fee, and whether court can issue directions to an educational institute regarding the manner to reduce the fee.

“Courts do not possess the necessary expertise to interfere in the micro financial planning of educational institutions. The same is done by experts in the field, and courts can interfere only if a decision is shown to be completely unreasonable and perverse,” the bench of justice Sudhir Mittal said while dismissing a plea against charging of fee during the pandemic.

The plea was moved by a group of students from Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala, in 2020. It was argued that due to the countrywide lockdown imposed in March 2020, classes were conduced online and hostels remained closed. The students were of the view that the college be asked for reduction in tuition fee by 15% and complete waiver of amenities fee, campus development fund, moot court fees and library fee.

The varsity in response had said that the fee structure was approved by the relevant statutory bodies and nothing beyond the approved fee structure was being charged. Also, it had claimed that wherever possible, relaxations had been granted.

The court observed that the petitioners did not produce any data to establish that fee under a particular head had remained unutilised, while the varsity had given sufficient reasons to support its decision, such as the fee being composite in nature, nonavailability of state grants and expenditure incurred on conducting online classes.

“Simply because the reduction is not in keeping with the expectation of the students, it cannot be called unreasonable,” the court said while dismissing the plea, but asking the varsity to “sympathetically” consider students’ individual cases for waiver of late fee charges.

HC SAYS SUCH DISPUTES SHOULD BE TAKEN UP BY THE REGULATORY BODY, COURTS CAN INTERFERE IF DECISION IS UNREASONABLE