Tell us how Covid-19 affected your income: HC to parents

ASKS THEM TO EXPLAIN INCOME AS PER TAX RETURNS , ALONG WITH DETAILS OF BANK ACCOUNTS, FDS, ETC

CHANDIGARH: A section of parents, who had approached the Punjab and Haryana high court seeking their impleadment in the dispute between parents and private schools over collection of fee, have been told by the court to file affidavits explaining how they suffered loss of income due to the Covid-19 situation.

They have been asked to explain their income as per tax returns for the previous years, along with complete details of their bank accounts, fixed deposits and income from rent, etc.

The parents had sought their impleadment in the petition by Independent Schools’ Association of Chandigarh, a body of 78-odd private schools in the city, which on June 22 had approached the court seeking quashing of the notification issued on June 3 under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. The notification had directed educational institutions to collect only tuition fee from students till further orders.

The parents filed the application for “impleadment as party to the petition” on the grounds that they were important stakeholders in the education of their children and were also aggrieved by the action of the schools in charging fee.

The high court bench of justice Arvind Singh Sangwan has also asked principal secretary, department of education, UT, to file an affidavit regarding alternative arrangements, if any, made by the administration for the students, who want to leave private schools on account of their parents being unable to pay their school fee and to ensure that UT will get such students admitted in government schools.

The court took note of the fact that similar arrangements had been made by the Haryana government. However, UT had not given any option to parents to withdraw their wards from private schools on account of their financial hardships, and no assurance was given that such students will be given admission in government schools in the city to ensure their right to education.

Responding to the petition by schools, UT had argued that majority of the schools had always propagated themselves as “smart schools”, and they did not have to spend anything extra for online classes in view of the fact that technology platforms like WhatsApp and Zoom were free and no special training was required to be imparted to teachers.

The matter will now come up for further hearing on July 15.