Supreme Court says States cannot impinge on autonomy of private unaided schools

The Supreme Court on Monday held that States cannot impinge on the autonomy of private unaided schools to repair and accumulate ‘just’ and ‘permissible’ faculty charges from mother and father, particularly within the title of the pandemic.

“It is one thing to say the State may regulate the fee structure of private unaided schools to ensure that the school management does not indulge in profiteering and commercialisation, but in the guise of exercise of that power, it cannot transcend the line of regulation and impinge upon the autonomy of the school to fix and collect ‘just’ and ‘permissible’ school fees from its students,” a Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari mentioned in a 128-page judgment.

The judgment, which might assist schools retain their autonomy in deciding their charge construction, got here on the premise of a collection of appeals filed by private unaided schools in Rajasthan in opposition to authorities notifications to defer assortment of charges, together with discount restricted to 70% of tuition charges by schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education and 60% from the schools affiliated to the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education, in view of the discount of syllabus by the respective Boards because of the aftermath of the pandemic (lockdown) from March 2020.

The managements contended that none of the provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 or the Rajasthan Epidemic Diseases Act, 2020 or the Rajasthan Schools (Regulation of Fee) Act, authorised the State to scale back the quantum of charges to be collected by the private schools.

The State countered it was solely taking care of the pursuits of the mother and father beneath the 2005 Act.

The court docket nonetheless agreed with the varsity managements that States should not have any authority beneath the 2005 Act to direct adjustments within the charge construction as a result of of COVID-19.

“The determination of school fee structure [which includes reduction of fixed fee for the relevant period] is the exclusive prerogative of the school management running a private unaided school, it is not open to the Legislature to make a law touching upon that aspect except to provide statutory mechanism to regulate fees for ensuring that it does not result in profiteering and commercialisation by the school management,” the judgment famous.

Justice Khanwilkar, who authored the decision for the Bench, famous that it was a special matter, if as a coverage, the State authorities takes the accountability to subsidise the charges of college students of private unaided schools, however the State cannot arrogate energy to itself a lot much less to concern instructions [to managements to collect reduced fee for the academic year concerned]”.

The judgment considerations round 36,000 private unaided schools, together with 220 minority private unaided schools, in Rajasthan.