Andhra Pradesh High Court Strikes Down GOs Fixing Fees Of Private Unaided Schools

In a relief to private unaided schools across Andhra Pradesh, the High Court has struck down the fixation of fees under Government orders as 'gross violation of statutory rules and principles of natural justice'. A single-judge bench of Justice U. Durga Prasad Rao was adjudicating a batch of writ petitions filed by different Private Unaided School Associations, Junior College Management Associations, Junior Colleges and High Schools. Based on recommendations of the A.P. School Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission, GO 53 determined the fee structure for Nursery to 10th class in private unaided schools in the State of A.P. for the block periods from 2021 till 2024 and GO 54 determined the fee structure of two years Intermediate course of private unaided junior colleges in the State of A.P. for block periods from 2021 till 2024. The petitioners challenged the Orders on two grounds:- i) No prior notification calling for proposals of fee structure to individual institutions were made ii) Fee fixation was finalised by only relying upon the geographical location of education institutions, disregarding the other parameters envisaged in Rule 8 of A.P. School Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission Rules, 2020 (APSERMC Rules). While striking down the impugned orders, the court observed that State Governments are only accorded the power to regulate the fee structure under Rule 8 of A.P. School Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission Rules, 2020. The state is given such powers under the rules to prevent schools from resorting to resorting to profiteering and collecting Capitation Fee. Agreeing with the contentions of the petitioner counsels, the court added that apex court judgments only allow the State Governments to undertake the regulation of fee structure and not the fixation of fees itself. Court's Observations Even for the purpose of regulation, the court observed that Rule 8(i) mandates that educational institutions shall submit the proposed fee structure of admissions along with relevant documents and books of accounts for scrutiny of the Commission. It also imposes responsibility on the Commission to issue "notification" in that regard from time to time. "The phrase "based on" employed in the Rule explains that the responsibility of educational institutions to submit proposed fee structure and relevant record comes only after the notification is issued by the Commission. Therefore, it is clear that the Commission, whenever it proposes to recommend the fee structure, shall issue notification calling for the fee structure proposals from the institutions", the court remarked by pointing out that A.P School Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission (APSERMC) has not issued any prior notification and chose to unilaterally decide the fee structure. The recommendations were made Noting that the principles of natural justice have been violated by not issuing notifications calling for the fee proposals from the petitioners and other institutions under Rule 8, the court also adds that the Commission has not followed the parameters under the Rules for fixing the fees. In the absence of fee proposals being called from the concerned educational institutions, it is only imperative that APSERMC has not verified the six parameters to recommend the fees class and category wise. The court also noted that the Government has attempted to fix the transportation charges that does not fall within the ambit of fees, which vitiates the legality of GOs. The court also agreed with the petitioner's submission that geographical location alone cannot be the basis for fixation of fees. According to the court, there cannot be a blanket analysis of all educational institutions that are differently placed on account of their infrastructural facilities, services rendered, syllabus adopted, international standards adhered to etc. "As per Rule 8(iv), in addition to location, other parameters shall also be taken into consideration by the Commission. It has to ultimately recommend the fee to be charged by the private educational institutions 'class' and 'category' wise. Therefore, the categorization of the educational institutions is an essential component for fixing the fee. Institutions can be categorized viz., A, B, C, D etc. basing on varied infrastructural and pedagogic facilities offered by them. It is a fact that all the educational institutions cannot and will not offer identical facilities. It is also a fact that for various reasons, particularly for having large space, high profiled concept schools and colleges are located even in Gram Panchayats, whereas medium and low-level schools and colleges are functioning in Municipalities and Corporation", the court clarified. The court underscored that recommendation of fee structure for educational institutions belonging to different classes can be ascertained based on...

Andhra Pradesh High Court Strikes Down GOs Fixing Fees Of Private Unaided Schools

Sebin James

It is harsh but true to say that ‘education’ in India…has gradually slided down from a high status of ‘charity or philanthropy’ to ‘occupation’ and further to ‘industry’ and finally to ‘a livelihood’, the court observed.

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