Punjab govt to challenge HC order allowing private schools to collect tuition fee
CHANDIGARH: Punjab school education minister Vijay Inder Singla on Wednesday said that the state government will challenge the single judge’s order allowing private schools to collect tuition fee for the lockdown period before a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana high court.
“We will file the LPA (letter patents appeal) in a day or two. The state government respects the decision of the high court, but there has been an adverse impact of the lockdown on the livelihood of people,” the minister said at a press conference in Chandigarh. The decision to file the appeal was taken at a meeting in which Singla, chief secretary Vini Mahajan, advocate general Atul Nanda and school education secretary Krishan Kumar were present.
On Tuesday, the high court bench of justice Nirmaljit Kaur said that irrespective of whether schools offered online classes during the lockdown period or not, they are entitled to collect tuition fee. The judge also permitted them to collect admission fee. The schools were restrained from increasing the fee for the 2020-21 academic session.
The court had on May 22 allowed private schools in Punjab tocharge70%feefromstudentsfor the academic year as an interim measure.
It had also allowed schools to chargeadmissionfeeintwoinstalments in six months and further directed that teachers in these schools would have to be paid 70% of their salaries.
It had acted on a petition from the Independent Schools’ Association, Chandigarh, with member schools in Punjab, after the association had contested the government move to allow schools to charge only tuition fee during the lockdown and not building, transportation and meal charges.
The schools had argued that if not allowed to collect or increase the fee, how would they pay teachers? The decision to allow 70% fee collection had led to parents holding protests. Subsequently, the state government and organisations of parents had become party to the dispute.