The Madras High Court on Monday, September 7, 2020 has sent a warning to the educational institutions who are flouting the court’s order and insisting on more than 40 percent of the annual tuition fee. The court has further issued directives to the Tamil Nadu government to submit the list of such erring institutions.

Justice N Anand Venkatesh of the High Court restated that these institutions would face contempt of court action. He also extended the last date to settle the 40 percent fee from August 31 to September 30.

In this matter the state school education secretary appeared in front of the court in person through video conferencing. The court has asked the education secretary to submit the list of the institutions that have defaulted.  

The representatives from associations of educational institutions had approached the court challenging the state government order prohibiting them from demanding fee from parents during lockdown.

On July 17, the court had permitted all the self-financing educational institutions in the state to collect 40 percent of the fee for now as the schools remain closed and there is no clarity on reopening due to the current pandemic. The court order also stated that the fee should be collected by August 31.  

As the schools in the state have remained closed since March, most of the private unaided schools were not in a position to pay salaries to their teaching and non-teaching staff. With the state government earlier reiterating to defer fee collection, it was impacting payments to various expenditures including school infrastructure, maintenance and salaries.

Source: Times of India

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