Tamil Nadu schools and colleges can collect 40% of fee as advance: Madras high court

CHENNAI: In a big relief to private schools and colleges that were barred by the state government from collecting any fee, the Madras high court on Friday allowed them to collect an ‘advance’ fee of 40% from students before August 31.
Since the fee fixed for some of these institutions had expired and fee fixation committees were yet to frame the new fee structure, the state government had provisionally fixed this year’s fee at 75% of the fee collected last year. Taking note of this fact, the court said: “The balance 35% of the fee (deducting the 40% advance) shall be collected within two months from the date of reopening of institutions and commencement of physical classes.” The institutions have also been permitted to collect last year’s arrears, if any, by September 30.
The directions were issued by Justice N Anand Venkatesh on a batch of petitions filed by associations of private educational institutions. The institutions were challenging a government order prohibiting them from demanding fees during lockdown. The judge also made it clear that teaching and non-teaching staff of these private institutions should not insist on any increment in salary or other entitlements until the restoration of normalcy.
Committees for fixation of fees for private schools and colleges have also been directed by the judge to immediately start the process of the determining the tuition fees for the respective institutions, and make an attempt to complete the process within eight months from August.
Justice Anand Venkatesh also asked Tamil Nadu government to immediately consider the request made by the institutions to supply textbooks and notebooks to students, either free of cost or at some nominal rates, to reduce the financial burden of parents.
As per the submission of the state, the fees will be fixed by the committee after taking into consideration the decrease in day-today maintenance expenses of such institutions during lockdown.
The judge noted that these interim directions had been issued considering the present situation and in order to find an interim solution to clear the logjam and in order to balance the interest of all the stakeholders. He then adjourned the hearing to October 5.