Orissa HC Not To Intervene In Fees Collection By Private Schools

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has refused to intervene in collection of fees by private schools in violation of the court’s fee waiver directive.

Hearing a petition filed by the Odisha Abhibhabak Mahasangh (OAM) on Monday, a division bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice BP Routray said in an interim order issued an interim order in this regard.

“The fees paid by the students will be subject to the outcome of the writ petition,” TNIE quoted the bench as saying.
The bench also issued notices returnable within four weeks to the School and Mass Education Department and listed the case for hearing along with the reply and rejoinder to it by the petitioner on July 11.

In its petition, the OAM alleged that schools had resumed offline classes from February 28 and students were not allowed unless fees are paid as notified for 2021-22.

The OAM had earlier sought the court’s intervention for fee waiver by private schools due to COVID pandemic. The High Court had disposed of the petition along with two other related petitions on January 7, 2021. The court had left it to the state government to proceed further on the MOU arrived between private institutions, with the mediation of the State, agreeing to waiver fees in a graded manner.

Subsequent to the court order, the state government on January 19, 2021, issued a notification asking all private schools to follow the High Court’s fee waiver directive or the MoU which had agreed upon different waiver rates as per different slabs of school fee structure.