Telangana High Court had issued notices to the State government in a PIL petition seeking creation of a mechanism to regulate fee structure in private schools in the State.
A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice A. Rajashekar Reddy instructed the Principal Secretary of Education and the Director of School Education to explain the government stand on the matter. The plea was filed by Hyderabad School Parents Association represented by its joint secretary K. Venkat Sainath.
The petitioner contended that there was no system in the State to regulate fixation and collection of fees for students by the private schools. Due to this, owners of private schools were fixing tuition and other fees at their will and without any justification, he contended.
The private school managements were introducing several components of fees in the absence of a system to regulate them. This was in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution and the Right to Education, he said in the affidavit.
This arbitrary fixation and collection fees was in conflict with the provisions of Telangana Educational Institutions Regulation of Admissions and Prohibition of Capitations Fee Act, the petitioner argued.
He sought a direction to the government to modify GO Rt No. 75 of June 28, 2021 instructing private schools to collect only 40% of tuition fee for 2021-22 academic year as a relief to parents due to COVID-19 pandemic.
The petitioner also wanted the government to make public the report of Tirupathi Rao Committee which was constituted under GO Rt. No. 31 issued in year 2017.
The bench also issued notices to the government in another PIL petition filed by Medipally Satyam seeking appointment of Commission for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
