LHC strikes down 8 percent hike in private schools fee

The Lahore High Court on Tuesday struck down eight per cent increase in fee by private schools from January 2019 and allowed only five per cent annul increase in July 2017, 2018 and 2019. The court partly declared District Regulatory Authority (DRA) order illegal being not in conformity with judgment of Supreme Court and modified in term of said clarification. The court also directed the DRA to closely monitor the whole process in order to ensure strict compliance of the decision of Supreme Court and observances of applicable law, rules and regulations.

The DRA would also set up complaint cells to deal with future grievances of the parties, the court ruled while disposing of several petition of students, parents and private schools administration. "In cases where the DRA has allowed reasonable increase in the fee the class during the previous academic year in accordance with the procedure provide in section 7-A of the Punjab Private Educational Institutions (promotion and Regulation) Ordinance, 1984, the same is not in violation of the judgment passed by the apex court. However, all increases in fee since January 2007 beyond the above criteria and in violation of the provisions of the law stood struck down in terms of the judgment of the apex court, the court clarified the Supreme Court's order.

The court ruled that five per cent increase in the base fee would be made from the beginning of the academic year first in July 2017, second in July 2018 and third in July 2019.

"For the purpose of recalculation of fee of private schools having monthly fee of Rs.4000 and above, base fee would be the fee existing in January 2017," the court observed.

The court further made it clear that the apex court had ordered reduction of 20 per cent in fee for schools charging monthly fee of Rs.5000 and above through order issued on December 30, 2018. Therefore, schools cannot claim any areas in this respect for any reason or under any circumstances as held by the apex court.

The private schools as well as parents/students are obliged to abide by the direction of apex court and shall facilitate the process of implementation of the decision in letter and spirit. The parents had challenged the decision of private schools receiving excessive fees, pleading that private educational institutions are violating the Supreme Court (SC) orders by taking excessive fees.

The private schools administration had also approached the LHC, complaining that the DRA was wrongly interpreting SC's order and they were entitled to eight per cent increases three times from July 2017 to 2019.