More than 30 parents filed intervention applications before the Bombay high court in support of a May 8 state government resolution (GR) that barred schools from increasing fees for the academic year 2020-21. The schools have been asked to charge existing payable fees in installments.

In June, while adjourning petitions filed by Association of Indian Schools and others against the validity of the GR, the HC stayed its implementation and all subsequent communications from the state to schools for compliance. The parents want the stay to be vacated.

The bench gave time to advocates for Association of Indian Schools, Kasegaon Education Society, Global Education Foundation and Sant Dnyaneshwar Mauli Sanstha to file objections to the pleas and adjourned the hearing till August 20.

Three applications came up on Monday before a bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Anuja Prabhudessai. Parents want the HC to direct schools to charge the same tuition fees as last year in instalments and not charge any fee for the lockdown period-till schools reopen.

They also want the HC to restrain schools from expelling students or barring them from attending ongoing e-classes if parents are unable to pay fees due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The basic contention in the pleas filed by parent Ankit Falor and others, which includes advocate Arvind Tiwari, was that 80 percent parents lost their jobs or have reduced financial capacities and cannot afford to pay higher fees. Tiwari’s plea said, “The pandemic has acted as a final onslaught on the mental and economic condition of parents. Parents are the ultimate sufferers in this whole situation.”

Source:  Times of India

Read: Supreme Court refuses to hear parents’ plea for school fees waiver