The high court on Friday issued an order restraining 135 private schools from rusticating any student or disallowing them to sit for an examination for failing to pay their fees.
The division bench of Justice I.P. Mukerji and Justice Moushumi Bhattacharya, however, asked the parents to clear the school fees by October 25.
Lawyers appearing for the guardians submitted before the bench that the schools were demanding more money in fees though the high court had issued an order in this regard last October.
In October 2020, a division bench headed by Justice Sanjib Banerjee had ordered the private schools to give a 20 per cent discount on tuition fees and waive the charges on the services that were no longer available because of the pandemic.
The court on Friday asked the schools to deposit the fees in two accounts — ‘disputed’ and ‘undisputed’.
The additional charges being levied this year will go to the ‘disputed’ account and the rest to the ‘undisputed’ account.
The schools are free to spend money from the “undisputed” account. The money in the ‘disputed’ account cannot be used till further orders.
The matter will come up again before the bench on December 3, when the schools have to submit the occupation of each parent and the amount deposited in the ‘disputed’ account.
“Government employees are getting their salaries on time, while others might be facing a financial crunch. So the bench asked the schools to prepare two lists based on the occupational status of the guardians. One list will have names of the guardians in government service and the other will have names of those who are in the private sector or run their own businesses,” said a lawyer who was present in the court.