The Delhi government, on Saturday, ordered a private school in the city to reimburse Rs 2.09 crore it collected from the students as extra fees within 30 days. The action was taken following complaints from parents.

“Apeejay School in Sheikh Sarai had increased different charges, such as annual fee and development fee, by 10-25 per cent without informing the government. After auditing the school’s accounts for the last seven years, we passed an order on Friday,” Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia said at a press conference here.

He further said that despite a surplus of Rs 30.85 crore, the Apeejay School did not pay the teachers as per the Seventh Pay Commission.

“In the 2018-19 session, the school had collected Rs 2.09 crore more than the actual fees. We have ordered the school to return the extra fees within 30 days or face action. Else it has to tell the parents that it’ll adjust the extra fees in the coming months,” he said.

“The school spent Rs 4.5 crore collected from fees on a new building. According to the law, the school should have done this with its own money, not from the fees collected from the students. In this building, it opened a new school called International School. But many of the teachers of the International School were paid from the other school’s account while the fees taken by it were going into another account,” Sisodia said.

He also said that Apeejay School showed inflated bills of Rs 5.5 crore for housekeeping, but failed to provide any details of the same.

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