In Noida, over 100 schools fined Rs 1 lakh for not giving pandemic fee refunds

NOIDA: The district administration has slapped a penalty of Rs 1 lakh each on over 100 schools that did not comply with a high court order asking them to give a 15% waiver on fees they charged in the first year of the pandemic (2020-21 session).

The decision was taken at a meeting of the fee regulatory committee chaired by the district magistrate, the district inspector of schools, city magistrate and other administrative officials.
“A notice has been sent to all schools that violated the order of the Allahabad high court. As a fine, each school will have to pay Rs 1 lakh,” said Manish Kumar Verma, the DM.
Some of the schools whose names are on the list include Shiv Nadar School, Ryan School, Father Agnel School, GD Goenka Public School, Gagan Public School, Modern Public School, BillaBong High International School, Ramagya Public School, The Millennium School, Lotus Valley International School and so on.
“Notices have been sent to all the schools that are on our list. There are over 100 of them,” said Dharamvir Singh, the district inspector of schools. He added that the schools would have to pay the fine within a month.
On January 6 this year, the high court had ordered all schools in the state to return within two months 15% of the fee charged during the 2020-21 session.
The court was hearing a plea by a group of parents, whose basic argument was that schools should be allowed to charge only the tuition fees for the pandemic months because their role was limited to conducting online classes.
The state government had subsequently ordered schools to return 15% of the fees to students who had left and offer rebates to those who were still enrolled with them.
Officials said if the schools failed to pay the Rs 1 lakh penalty within a month, the amount would be increased to Rs 5 lakh for them. “Since March, we sent notices to almost all schools in the district. But many of them have still not responded to them,” Singh said.
Some of the schools slapped with the fine claimed they had already initiated the process of refund. The DM clarified that the schools that furnished documents to prove they had refunded the amount or adjusted it in the current session would no longer need to pay the penalty.
However, there were many schools that declined to comment on the penalty notice.
Officials said they had issued another notice to schools, asking them not to force any student or parent to buy books, shoes, socks and uniform from stores listed by them.