HC notice to Gujarat govt on PIL on school fee regulatory

The Gujarat High Court today issued a notice to the government on a PIL which demands setting up of committees headed by a retired High Court judge to fix the fees of private schools.
Division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi issued the notice on a public interest litigation filed by Praful Desai.
The PIL sought the court's direction to the state government that the fee regulatory committees, contemplated under a law recently passed by the Assembly, should be headed by a retired HC judge.
These committees -- one each for four zones of the state -- should be fixing the fees of private schools, the petitioner prayed.

Desai also wanted a representative of parents' organisations to be a member of these committees.
The PIL also said that the government should set up some mechanism to assess the quality of schools.

The government yesterday issued rules under the Gujarat Self Financed Schools (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017, which came into force earlier this month.
Chairman of Fee Regulatory Committee can be either a retired district and sessions judge, or a retired IPS or IAS officer, the government had said yesterday.
Other members would be a chartered accountant, a civil engineer or an approved government valuer, an academician and a district education officer.