Cuttack, Feb. 26: Orissa High Court today imposed restrictions on Stewart School management’s bid to collect enhanced fees on the basis of recommendation of the Fee Structure Committee, Odisha.

Last week, the court had imposed a similar restriction on New Stewart School management.

Secretary of the Stewart School Parents’ Association Ramzan Khan filed a petition after the school authorities had issued notices to students for collection of enhanced fee of nearly Rs 380 per month from February.

“The single judge bench of Justice Sanju Panda, before which the petition came up today, issued an interim stay order on collection of the enhanced fee by the Stewart School management on the basis of committee’s decision,” petitioner counsel Gopal Agarwal told The Telegraph.

“The bench further restrained the Stewart School management from taking any coercive action related to payment of school fees by the students,” Agarwal said.

The secretary of the association said the petition would be taken up for analogous hearing, along with the petition of Debraj Nayak and five other members of the Parents’ Association of New Stewart School, on March 27.

On February 21, Justice Panda had issued an interim stay order on collection of enhanced fee by the management of New Stewart School on the basis of the committee’s decision.

Both the petitions have challenged the committee report.

Earlier, on the fee hike dispute, the high court had directed the Fee Structure Committee, Odisha, to determine the fee structure of Stewart School and New Stewart School.

The management of both the schools had not been able to enhance school fees since 2011-12 due to the legal problems.

To fix both the schools’ fee structure, committee chairman Justice K.P. Mohapatra (retired) constituted a sub-committee under the chairmanship of R.S. Sahoo, a chartered accountant as well as a committee member.

Sahoo had submitted his report with recommendation and fixed the fee structure of both the schools to the committee, which accepted it for presentation before the high court.

Two petitions have sought quashing of the committee’s decision, alleging it to be “illegal and arbitrary” as it had allowed the recommendation of the chairman of the sub-committee “without affording an opportunity of hearing” to the parents’ associations of the two schools.