High court allows Punjab private schools to deposit ‘continuation fee’

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday allowed 100-odd private schools in Punjab to deposit continuation fee for 2020-2021.

The order was passed by high court bench of justice Sudip Ahluwalia on the plea of Punjab Private School Organization, a Patiala-based body, with 102 members across the state, which had challenged the June 12 instructions of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB). Their counsel, PK Goklaney told court that PSEB has imposed an unacceptable condition that depositing of the continuation fees from the institution would be permissible only if the private schools concerned give an undertaking on certain norms put in place by the government. The response from the PSEB and state government has been sought by September 22.

The PSEB charges continuation fee of Rs 10,000 for up to matric and Rs 20,000 for up to senior secondary from the schools. However, this year, they were told that only those schools would be permitted to deposit the fee, who sign the undertaking. Otherwise, they were not allowed to deposit the fee, which would result in closure of schools on March 31, 2021.

In the undertaking, the schools had to comply with certain conditions by December 31, 2021. The HC while allowing schools to deposit fee without the undertaking, said such deposit would not automatically grant them the right of continuation, and would be dependent on the result of this petition in court.