MADURAI
A Head Constable has moved the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court seeking relief for his children after they were issued transfer certificates for non-payment of fine for delay in paying school fees. Taking up the petition for hearing, Justice R. Mahadevan directed notice to the school authorities.
The petitioner, P. Selva Muruga Prabhu, said that the private school in Madurai, where his two children were enrolled, had imposed a fine for delay in payment of fees. When complained about the exorbitant fine charged, the school agreed to deduct the amount from the second instalment after initial mediation. However, it did not deduct the fine amount, as promised.
When the school authorities demanded payment of the second instalment in full, the petitioner said he refused. Following which the school issued transfer certificate to both his children studying in fifth and first standards. The petitioner said that the children were being expelled in the middle of the academic year. This was in violation of the Right to Education and Section 16 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (No child admitted to school can be expelled). Section 3 of the Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of fee) Act, 2009, which prohibited collection of excess fee, had also been violated, said the petitioner.
The petitioner approached the court seeking a direction to the school to allow his children to continue their studies and write the term examinations and that the transfer certificates be declared null and void.
