Outlook has a report on the Supreme Court's judgement on Delhi schools:
In a major relief to parents, the Supreme Court today set stringent guidelines to prevent commercialisation of education by private schools in Delhi and directed the authorities to verify whether these were adhering to the conditions linked to allotment of land to them at concessional rates by the Government.A three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice V N Khare, Justice S B Sinha and Justice S H Kapadia by a 2:1 majority judgement dismissed the petitions filed by almost all public schools in Delhi challenging a Delhi High Court order asking the Government to intervene in cases of excess charging of fees by them.
Justice Kapadia, writing the judgement for himself and the Chief Justice, ordered the Director, Education, to check the land allotment letters of all public schools in Delhi and inquire whether they have been adhering to the conditions laid down therein.
One of the conditions allegedly violated by most of the schools which got land at concessional rate was that they have not been admitting students of economically backward section for their inability to pay the "exhorbitant" fees.
The Court asked all recognised unaided schools in the capital to file with the Director, Education, their annual financial account giving details of the total fees collected from the students, the profit, the expenditure on various heads including salary and the surplus funds.
Quoting the Delhi School Education Act, Justice Kapadia said that in the fixation of fee structure several components have to be taken into account and capital expenditure could be made by the schools only from their surplus funds.
The apex Court also said that money generated by one school cannot be transferred to the parent society administering the school.
Giving a dissenting judgement, Justice Sinha said that it was open for the schools to maintain their account the way they deemed fit.
He also said that they could transfer funds from one schools to another and use the same for establishment of new schools as spread of education was the need of the hour.
Justice Sinha said the Courts should not put in clauses that were not there in the Education Act, but added that the schools must comply with the conditions laid down at the time of allotment of land at concessional rates by the Government.
The High Court in its October 1998 judgement had provided a methodology for fixing of fees in which consultation with the representatives of the parents was mandatory.
However, it had said that if thereafter the Government found the fees to be excessive, it could intervene in the matter and the schools could approach a statutory Committee to address their grievances.
Justice Sinha in his dissenting judgement has made a very important point by saying the Courts should not put in clauses that were not there in the Education Act. I have been unable to locate the full text of the Supreme Court judgement as yet on the Supreme Court's web site. It will be interesting to go through both the Supreme Court judgement and the Delhi School Education Act in detail to see what they have to say.
