Rajasthan: SC lawyer Singhvi opposes plea of parents in school fee waiver issue

JAIPUR: Senior Supreme Court advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Tuesday opposed the appeal of the state government and parents association and said there were no free lunches in the world.
Singhvi appeared on behalf of the school association on the fees issue before the division bench comprising Justice Prakash Gupta and Justice Mahendra Goyal.
“There are no free lunches anywhere in the world. The single bench of the high court had allowed schools to charge 70 per cent of tuition fees, while five high courts of the country justified the charging of school fees upto 100 per cent. Also, the interim order of the single bench of Rajasthan High Court allowed schools to charge 70 per cent of tuition fees after hearing all the parties in the case,” Singhvi said while opposing the appeals by the state government and parents association.
The appeal was filed in Rajasthan High Court against the order to collect 70 per cent of the tuition fees.
Advocate Sunil Samadadia, who has filed an appeal on behalf of the parents association said, “Such an interim order cannot be allowed to recover 70 per cent of the fees, as it is not the final order.”
He added that the Rajasthan School Fees Regulation Act 2016 had not fixed the fees of most schools and the single bench had given the order assuming that the fees of the schools are fixed as per the Act. “Most affected party in this case are the parents who were not been heard by the single bench. Even some parents who reached the court were not been made parties in the case,” he said.
On the other hand, additional advocate general Rajesh Maharishi, on behalf of the state government, said in the present situation the government has postponed the order of collection of fees, which was not stayed by the single bench. “In this scenario it is wrong to charge 70 per cent tuition fees,” he said.
However, network problems surfaced during the hearing because of which the court could only hear appellants and others for 40 minutes. Thus, the court ordered to hear the matter on October 9.
On September 7, the single bench had given an interim order allowing private schools to charge 70 per cent of tuition fees.