The Delhi High Court has directed KR Mangalam World School in Greater Kailash-2 to file an affidavit indicating the break-up of the amount mentioned under the head tuition fee in its current fee structure.
The court passed the direction after a plea was filed by the parents association claiming that the school had been charging exorbitant amount of money despite the Delhi government asking schools not to charge anything beyond the tuition fee during the ongoing lockdown.
Justice Jyoti Singh issued notices to the Delhi government and school authorities seeking their response on the plea and posted the matter for further hearing on May 26.
The court was hearing a plea by the Parents Association of KR Mangalam World School, who had contended that in the garb of collecting tuition fee, the school was charging hefty fees.
The counsel for the parents, advocate Gaurav Bahl, told the court that the school is not willing to give a detailed breakup of amounts mentioned in the fee bills sent to parents. He further submitted that compared to the tuition fee charged for the academic session 2018- 2019, the amount charged in the current bills was higher.
Appearing for the school, its counsel Kamal Gupta opposed the arguments and submitted that the school is bound by the guidelines issued by the Delhi government and was following them meticulously and scrupulously. He submitted that the fee bill only reflects tuition fee, which was being charged.
He also said that the Annual and the Development Charges, though mentioned in the fee bill, will not be charged, until further orders of the court.
Advocate Gautam Narayan, additional standing counsel, said that due to the pandemic the government had issued circulars and made it clear to all the schools under its jurisdiction that any expenses/expenditures other than the tuition fee should not be charged by the school.
Following this, the court sought the response of both the Delhi government and school.
The school management did not comment despite repeated phone calls and text messages, but its counsel Kamal Gupta, said,“It is unfortunate that despite repeated directions by the court to pay the fees at current rates certain parents for their vested and oblique motives have chosen to defy orders and are holding on to about Rs 4 crore since the last one year. There are only 20 parents trying to mislead other parents, and are also taking association membership fees from them. The association is unregistered so as to save itself from any audit or law whereas the school’s accounts are audited every year.
Gupta said that the school had implemented the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations but it was unable to make the new payment to teachers because of some parents.
