Kerala HC's directive to CBSE School Managements Association over collection of tuition fees

The High Court on Thursday directed the Kerala CBSE School Managements Association to file a statement explaining under what heads it was permitting its member schools to charge fees for the academic year 2020-21. The court also sought an explanation on the concessions the schools could offer students, taking note of the extenuating circumstances that most citizens have been pushed into due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The court asked the association to file the statement within 10 days and posted the case to October 13. Justice Devan Ramachandran issued the order on the petition filed by the school managements, alleging that students’ parents were taking advantage of the pandemic and refusing to pay the fees for the 2020-21 academic year. They sought a directive to the state police chief to ensure that the functioning of schools is not disrupted by anyone, including the parents.

They claimed they were entitled to charge fees as they did for the 2019-20 academic year. To this, the court observed that the managements had not explained how this could be done when many of the facilities that were offered physically were now denied to the students on account of online classes.

The court also extended the interim order that no student should be expelled from online classes for not paying fees, on the condition that the parents pay, within a month, the arrears up to the time when the school was closed on account of the COVID-19 lockdown.