Apeejay school deposits Rs 5L fine, refunds excess fee

Noida: Apeejay School on Tuesday paid a fine of Rs 5 lakh that was imposed on it by the district fee regulation committee (DFRC) on Saturday for not complying with the latter’s February order of refunding the excess fees it had charged for the last quarter of the 2018-19 academic session.
The school in Noida’s Sector 16 also complied with the DFRC’s order of refunding the excess fees to parents of over 4,000 students. The school was threatened with de-recognition proceedings by the district administration if it had failed to do so by Tuesday.

However, in a letter, the school management informed the DFRC that it would challenge the order at the appellate authority overseeing district level committees. The DFRC’s initial crackdown on Apeejay in February this year came in the wake of a complaint by the All Noida School Parents’ Association (ANSPA) where the latter had accused the school of hiking the quarterly fees by nearly Rs 5,000 “in violation of the UP Self-Financed Independent Schools (Fee Regulation) Act”.

The school was pulled up for the second time last week after it failed to roll back the fees and deposit a fine of Rs 1 lakh that was levied on it by the DFRC.

“This is the first time a school has been imposed a higher fine. This should also serve as an example for all the other self-financed and independent schools which are not paying attention to the fee regulation law,” said BN Singh, district magistrate of Gautam Budh Nagar, also the chairman of the district fee-regulation committee.

“We have called a meeting on April 24 with the principals of all Noida schools to inform them about the fee regulation act. There is a growing concern among parents about schools not adhering to the act and we want schools to take due cognisance,” he added.

Apeejay principal AK Sharma said, “We are a law-abiding institution and following all the rules as laid out by the DFRC. The fine has been submitted in the spirit of compliance.”

ANSPA expressed relief with the compliance displayed by Apeejay.

“Leading schools have a responsibility to be law abiding and if they follow the rule book, all other schools are bound to fall in place,” Yatendra Kasana, its president, said.