Over 90 schools tell HC that 75 pc of excess fee deposited

Over 90 private schools of Delhi today claimed in the Delhi High Court that they have complied with its order to deposit 75 per cent of the excess fees charged by them.
Another 20-odd schools said they would deposit 75 per cent of the amount within a period of two days to two weeks, as recommended to be refunded to the students by the Justice Anil Dev Singh Committee set up by the high court.
A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Najmi Waziri protected the schools, which claimed they had deposited the money with the high court registry, from any coercive action subject to their claims being verified by the Delhi government.

It also said that those schools which deposit the money within the time stated before the court, will also be protected from any coercive action after their claims are verified by the Directorate of Education (DoE).
The bench asked the DoE of the Delhi government to verify the claims of deposit in all the matters and inform the court on October 27, the next date of hearing.
Meanwhile, the Action Committee, an association representing several hundred private schools which had challenged the Dev Singh committee's recommendations, withdrew its plea after the court said that several of its members have raised similar grievances in their respective petitions.

"There is no need for multiplicity of proceedings," the bench said.

During the hearing, Delhi government standing counsel Ramesh Singh told the bench that till September 22, around Rs 60 crore were deposited by 61 private schools.
The court had on September 6 directed the private schools which have failed to refund the excess fee charged by them despite a government order, to deposit 75 per cent of the principal amount within 14 days to avoid any coercive action.
It had directed the schools to deposit the amount in the form of "cash, fix deposits receipts or bank guarantees favouring the Registrar General" in the High Court Registry.

The court had taken strong exception to the fact that the schools had failed to comply with the committee's recommendations to refund the excess fees on some pretext or the other, even after over five years since 2011 when the panel was set up and gave its recommendations.
Apart from the committee's recommendations, the private schools have also challenged a May 29 notice of the DoE ordering refund of the excess fees charged by them, failing which the institutions could face derecognition or takeover by the department.
The committee was set up to look into the excess fees charged by city private schools on the pretext of implementing the 6th Pay Commission.

After examining 1092 private schools, the panel had said that 531 among them had charged excess fee and recommended that it should be refunded with nine per cent interest. It had also recommended special inspection of 247 schools.
The panel, which was set up on a plea by an NGO, Delhi Abhibhavak Mahasangh, had later moved the court claiming that over 500 private schools were yet to refund Rs 350 crore of excess fee taken from students on the pretext of implementing the 6th Pay Commission.
It had also sought initiation of contempt proceedings against all such institutions.