Delhi govt meets parents to discuss new bill on private school fee hikes

New Delhi: Chief minister Rekha Gupta and education minister Ashish Sood met parents of students from several private schools at Delhi Secretariat on Saturday to discuss the recently approved bill aimed at regulating arbitrary fee hikes in private institutions.
The meeting came days after the cabinet cleared Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Bill 2025, which proposes penalties ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh for schools that increase fees without approval. The law, once passed by the assembly, will apply to all 1,677 private schools in the city.

During the interaction, Gupta told parents that govt won't tolerate harassment over fees. "If any school harasses a student or parent over fees, they are welcome to report the matter directly to my office or to the education minister," she said.
"For 27 years, private schools had been arbitrarily increasing fees without any checks or clear regulations. Previous govts had no concrete legal mechanism to control such practices," CM added. The new bill is a "decisive and historic step" to ensure transparency and fairness in the fee fixation process, she pointed out.
Education minister Sood said the bill was a response to several long-standing grievances. "Education will no longer be a tool for exploitation or mental harassment of students," he said, alleging that earlier govts turned a blind eye to repeated complaints from parents.
The parents present at the meeting, including those from DPS Dwarka, said they had submitted several petitions earlier but received no response. They called the bill a long-overdue measure to ensure accountability and fairness in fee structures.