Patna, Oct. 20: The high court today dismissed a PIL challenging the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education’s unilateral decision to effect an “exorbitant increase” in schools fee structure.

A division bench of Justice T. Meena Kumari and Justice Vikash Jain dismissed the petition filed by one Sudhir Kumar Ojha, seeking direction to the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) to quash the hike in various types of fee structure.

Dismissing the plea, the bench said: “What is your locus and how are you affected? Does your child study in an ICSE-affiliated school? If not, then how are you an aggrieved person?”

The court had earlier asked the Centre to furnish the steps it intends to take to regulate the fee structure of schools affiliated to ICSE.

The petitioner’s counsel, Vijay Kumar Singh, said ICSE and other boards have “unilaterally hiked the fee structures, putting the low and medium income groups at the peril of education mafia”.