The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Orders reserved on private schools' petitions on fees

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Sunday, Sep 05, 2010
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Orders reserved on private schools' petitions on fees

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday reserved orders on a batch of petitions seeking an interim injunction restraining the authorities from implementing the fees fixed by The Private Schools Fee Determination Committee.

Justice K.B.K. Vasuki reserved orders after hearing both sides.

Various associations and individual private schools had filed petitions challenging the fee fixed stating that the committee in a hurried manner and without applying its mind on each and every institution and without following the procedures contemplated under the Act and the rules passed individual orders on May 7 this year fixing the fee structure.

In a petition, the Federation of Associations of Matriculation Higher Secondary Schools in Tamil Nadu said the fees fixed were meagre. The committee issued a questionnaire without a proper specification of details enabling the institution to propose their fee structure.

The committee's order and its stand in reiterating the earlier order in fixing a rigid fee without affording any opportunity of hearing under the Act did not have any legal sanctity.

The Additional Advocate-General, P. Wilson, submitted that the fees had been determined only on the particulars furnished by the schools.

Since the schools had now come out with more particulars by filing their objections, the particulars had to be verified. There was no sufficient time for the committee to immediately consider the objections and pass orders. The initial determination of the fees was not vitiated on legal grounds.

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