CHANDRASEKHARPUR Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All the aforesaid writ applications, except W.P. (C) Nos. 5030 and 5113 of 2009 which will be dealt with later, relate to enhancement of fees, such as tuition fees, admission fees, readmission fees etc. by the school authorities of various DAV Public Schools of the State. All these matters were heard together and common orders were passed in the record of W.P.(C) No. 5030 of 2009.

(2.) The disputes raised by the petitioners in various writ applications were widely canvassed from various angles and the managements of DAV Public Schools were also heard in extenso, the parties being represented by the respective counsel. All the DAV Public Schools in the State of Orissa are affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE for short) and follow the syllabus of the said Board for imparting education to the students. Such schools were established in the State after obtaining noobjection certificates as per the resolution adopted by the Department of School and Mass Education, Government of Orissa (hereinafter referred to as "Resolution, 1996").For better of this case, the said resolution in toto is quoted hereunder:-

(3.) The Government in its School and Mass Education Department issued a letter to the Director of Secondary Education, Orissa and the Director, Elementary Education, Orissa under the subject enhancement of tuition fees by the school authorities of the private English medium schools in the State from the academic session 2009 10 intimating the said Directors, drawing reference to the department letter dated 24.01.2009 on the said subject and that the said department has received the required information, as called for from 25 school authorities out of 210 private English medium schools and in the meantime, the model code and conduct for ensuing general Lok Sabha and State Assembly Election is in force. Pending receipt of permission from the Chief Electoral Officer, Orissa, the school authorities may be advised for the present to admit the students on payment of fees at the last year rate. It was also intimated to the schools that final decision of the Government will be communicated in due course and incase of hike in the fee structure is considered, the same will be given effect to from the academic session 2009 10. Such letter was issued on 21.03.2009 (Annexure 7 in W.P.(C) No. 5113 of 2009). Thereafter, on 27.03.2009 again the said Directors were intimated by the department that the managing committees of the schools were instructed to furnish the point-wise information as per the provision of School and Mass Education Department resolution dated 23.09.1996 (already quoted above). Out of 211 schools, information was received from about only 25 schools within the stipulated date. Taking the said information into consideration, the Government has decided to increase the fee structure of private managed English medium schools in the State provisionally up to 25% over the last year tuition fees, only for those schools which were paying 5 th Pay Commission scale and are going to pay 6 th Pay Commission scale to the staff. Similarly, development fees should not be increased beyond 15%. The Directors were requested to communicate the above decisions of the Government, so that the admission process for the academic session 2009 10 will take place. These letters have been challenged by the local managing committees of two of the DAV Public Schools, i.e., the Management of DAV Public School, Unit 8, Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar and the Management of DAV Public School, Chandrasekharpur, Bhubaneswar in W.P. (C) Nos. 5113 and 5030 of 2009, simultaneously praying for a direction to implement the decision taken by the said managing committees with regard to fees structure, as fixed by the managing committees of the said schools in consultation with the representative of the parents and teachers of the respective schools. In the other batch of writ applications, the guardians/parents of the students of the respective schools, have challenged the decision of the managing committees of the respective schools in hiking the fees including the tuition fees, admission fees, readmission fees etc.