On Wednesday, the Rajasthan High Court harshly criticized the state government for deferring the fee submission issue for the last many months and asked them to submit an affidavit by the 19th of October. This document would have to specify the fee percentage, that the private schools will be charging from parents during this ongoing pandemic. Private schools in Jaipur and other cities in Rajasthan have been barred from collecting any kind of fees till the 20th of October.
Earlier, the HC had ordered 70% payment of the tuition fees in 3 instalments
The High Court was heard a joint appeal filed by the state government and advocate Sunil Samadaria on the private school fee issue. The division bench of Chief Justice Indrajit Mahanti and CJ S.K. Sharma asked the state government to confirm the amount of fee which should be fixed for the remaining session, when schools reopen.
The appellant advocate Sunil Samdariya, also placed a proposal which stated that the court should set a 50% fee for this academic session. This amount shall not put any kind of pressure on parents and schools will not have to suffer losses. However, advocate Kamlakar Sharma, representing schools, opposed his proposal and requested the court to listen to their plea on merit basis. Therefore, the court directed the state government to issue an affidavit so that the fees amount can be fixed during such a crisis. On October 12, a joint hearing took place before the double bench of the court on the petitions filed by advocate Sunil Samadia, the state government and parents of pupils. The court, after hearing all the parties, said that the fees will continue to be withheld till the next order. Earlier the High Court ordered that 70% of the tuition fee needs to be paid in 3 instalments by parents.
However, private schools were reportedly charging 70% of the total fees and flouting the High Court’s order of charging 70% of the tuition fees in the current session. The All Rajasthan Parents Forum filed an appeal in the Rajasthan High Court, requesting it to defer its earlier order and to direct schools to claim only actual expenses while ignoring the additional expenses.
Rajasthan government has further decided that the school timings for October will remain unchanged this year and the timings for teachers would remain the same till the 31st of October. The government-funded schools will follow their summer time-table which requires the pupils to be in attendance from 7.30 AM to 1 PM.
