The Calcutta High Court has given parents reprieve till next week to pay 80 percent of the pending school fees. The court asked the schools not to take any “coercive action” till then and has instructed schools to give parents the part-payment option.

If they don’t do so and insist on 100 percent payment of pending dues, the schools cannot de-roster students from online classes and stop them from appearing in online examinations.

The HC will appoint a two-member committee to look into the audited accounts of city schools “to ascertain the variable costs involved and the extent of concession the schools ought to pass on to the students”. The court has said that Jadavpur University VC Suranjan Das will head this committee provided he agrees to the court’s request.

Also read: West Bengal schools allowed to collect fees for online classes: High Court

The other member will be named by Advocate General Kishore Dutta from among the recently retired heads of state higher secondary board or secondary board. A division bench of justices Sanjib Banerjee and Moushumi Bhattacharya will hear the school-fee PIL again on Tuesday.

Das has agreed to the court’s request and said, “Since I have been requested by the court, I will happily discharge my responsibility. I hope I am able to do justice to all stakeholders.”

HC also said that the committee will receive the audited accounts of the income and expenditure of schools within a week. These account statements should be certified by regular auditors or by a chartered accountant. The schools that do not furnish these details won’t be able to take steps against students and the particulars to be to be furnished by schools will have all details, covering heads of income and expenditure from January to July, 2020.

“Such figures will give the committee an idea as to what the normal income and expenditure has been after the lockdown started in March,” the order stated. 

Source: Times of India

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