Punjab challenges high court order on pvt school fee payment

MATTER HAD COME UP FOR DISCUSSION AT WEDNESDAY’S CABINET MEETING AND ADVOCATE GENERAL ATUL NANDA HAD BEEN ASKED TO FILE THE LPA IN THE HC

CHANDIGARH: Punjab government on Friday challenged the judgment of the high court (HC) in the matter pertaining to payment of school fees for the lockdown period.

In a Letter Patents Appeal (LPA), filed under Order 41, Rule 5, read with Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the state government has sought a stay on the operation of the single judge order and judgement of June 30 “in the interest of justice and fair play.”

In the ruling, a single judge of the HC had given relief to the private schools to effectively collect all types of fee irrespective of whether or not it offered online classes.

Chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh had earlier expressed concern over private schools charging fee from students even when no online or offline classes were held in wake of the Covid-19 lockdown.

The matter had come up for discussion at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting and advocate general Atul Nanda had been asked to file the LPA in the HC.

The LPA points out that the private schools, despite pleading financial hardship and incapacity to meet their expenditures, did not place on record any evidence or material to prove the same.

It was further noted that the HC, in its ruling, had completely ignored the fact that the Punjab government had been constrained to issue orders directing private schools to charge only “tuition fee” (in respect of online education provided by them), in order to mitigate the emergent hardship faced by the parents due to the Covid-19 crisis.