On Tuesday, the Chandigarh Administration told the High Court of Punjab & Haryana that non-payment of tuition fee by any parent in the wake of Coronavirus outbreak won’t result in denial of education or any other adverse consequence for the student.
Senior standing counsel Pankaj Jain told the high court bench of Chief Justice RS Jha & Justice Arun Palli that instructions in this regard had been issued to all schools on May 18.
The HC was hearing a PIL filed by a Chandigarh advocate, Pankaj Chandgothia, who had challenged the May 18 directions of the UT administration to schools allowing them to charge tuition fee for the months of April & May by May 31 & thereafter monthly.
Pankaj Chandgothia told the Court that in March schools were told to give 1 month’s time to parents/students to deposit the fees after schools reopened, but now 2 months’ fee was being charged in one go. This put parents in unnecessary hardship, Chandgothia told the Court.
The bench observed that the UT administration had already passed orders giving specific directions to private schools not to take any coercive steps against students in case of non-payment of fee.
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The bench disposed of the PIL observing that adequate arrangement for accommodating students & parents unable to deposit fees has already been made. Therefore, no further direction was required to be issued in the matter, the bench added.
However, the Court, gave liberty to individual parents & students to approach the schools, the grievance redressal authority, or even the UT administration in case of any hardship.
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