Cuttack, July 8: The indefinite suspension of classes in three out of the four DAV public schools in Cuttack has brought into focus the onus on the Orissa government regarding fee hike.

The DAV schools have no funds to invest for salary hike of teachers. DAV institutions regional director, Himanshu Kumar Mohanty said: “There has been no revision in school fees since 2008-09 because of the high court verdict.”

Orissa High Court, in its ruling on June 27, had put the onus on the state government to arrive at a final decision regarding fee structure in the ongoing dispute about hike in school fees by DAV schools.

A full text of the judgment, which was available yesterday, indicates that the state government had assured to take a policy decision with regard to hike in fees.

But the court felt that till the government takes such a policy decision, a committee should be constituted to look into the matter of fee hike by private unaided educational institutions (high school and secondary schools).

Any school intending to raise its fees from the existing amount to a higher amount has to make an application through its principal or headmaster to the committee along with documents and materials.

The court constituted the committee consisting of the commissioner-cum-secretary, school and mass education department, inspector of schools of the locality of the applicant school, principal or headmaster of the applicant school, two representatives of parents association of schools concerned and head of the local self government (mayor of municipal corporation / chairman of municipality or NAC / sarpanch of gram panchayat in the area in which the school is functioning).

“The commissioner-cum-secretary may act in person or through his / her nominee, not below the rank of deputy secretary. The committee, if required, may cause a spot inquiry of the school and collect materials and evidence from the staff members with regard to actual salary being received. It may also collect information from parents with regard to the facilities being provided to the students in such schools. All such materials shall be taken into consideration while fixing the fee structure for the applicant school and final decision is to be taken within 90 days of filing such application,” the single judge bench had specified in its order.

“Till such fee structure is provided by the committee constituted, the DAV public schools functioning in the state, shall continue to collect fees from the students at the rate which was being collected for the session 2008-09,” the order said.

The court had ruled that: “The fee structure of a school is to be fixed at a rate which is necessary to meet its expenditure and general surplus, which can only be used for betterment and growth of the concerned institution.”