64 schools asked to refund excess fee

The Justice Anil Dev Singh Committee on fee hike has found that 64 unaided private schools in Delhi have increased fees in an “unjust manner” since 2008, that too without paying salaries at par with the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations to their teaching and non-teaching staff.

The three-member committee headed by former Rajasthan High Court Chief Justice Singh submitted its first interim report to the Delhi High Court on Friday, and recommended that these 64 schools refund excess fees with 9 per cent interest to parents. 

The committee members examined the financial records of 200 private schools on random of a total 1,172 schools.

Nearly 24 schools are from Guru Harkrishan Group of Schools. Holy Home Public School and Universal Public School are among other schools under the scanner. According to the report, schools have arrears ranging from over Rs 60 lakh to Rs 1.3 crore.

For the remaining 13 schools, the committee noted that these schools did not maintain any financial records which made the committee suspicious of schools fabricating information.

The committee also slammed the directorate of education for not conducting regular checks on school records. It recommended that these 13 schools be penalised by the education department for not maintaining records as required under government rules.

The High Court had formed the committee in 2011 after separate petitions were filed by three NGOs – Delhi Abhibhavak Mahasangh, Social Jurist and Faith Academy – challenging the government’s decision to allow private schools to hike fees.

The court had asked the committee to inspect and audit the accounts of private schools to find out if the fee hike was justified.