The Madras High Court on Friday upheld the validity of the Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act 2009.
In its 52-page common judgment disposing of a batch of writ petitions, the First Bench comprising Chief Justice H.L. Gokhale and Justice K.K. Sasidharan, said the Act was in consonance with the law laid down by the Supreme Court, and it by and large struck a balance between institutions' autonomy and measures to prevent commercialisation of education. There were sufficient guidelines in the statute for either approving or fixing the fees, the Bench said. The procedure provided for appropriate opportunity to the managements to present their views.
However, the Bench held Section 11 of the Act as ultra vires Article 14 of the Constitution.
The power of the District Committee or its members under Section 11 (2) of the Act and Rules 4(4) and 4(5) to enter private schools or its premises or those of the management at any time for search, inspection and seizure are held to be arbitrary.
The petitioners, the Tamil Nadu Nursery, Matriculation and Higher Secondary Schools Association and others which were unaided private school managements, sought to declare the legislation and its rules as unconstitutional and violative of the rights to establish and administer educational institutions and to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes. It also went against the minorities' right to establish and administer educational institutions.
Additional Advocate-General P.Wilson pointed out that several commissions, including the Kothari Commission on education, had emphasised appropriate measures with regard to reforms in the education sector. He said there were several representations by parents' associations against charging of high fees by certain schools and news reports of agitation by parents at different places.
The Bench said the impugned Act in no way fixed a rigid fee. It only called upon the school management to forward their fee structure with details to see how they arrived at such a fee structure. The main idea was to see whether under the guise of fee collection they were indirectly collecting capitation fee or indulging in profiteering.
The provisions of the impugned Act should be read along with the Private Schools Regulation Act (PSRA). Section 13 of the impugned Act clearly stated that it should be read in addition to the existing laws.
