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The Kerala High Court dismissed a PIL filed on the 3rdof June against the collection of fees by schools in Kerala during the lockdown.
In the case of Sreelekshmi S v. State of Kerala, students from Buddha Central School, Dhanvin M. Pillai and Sreelashmi S approached the Kerala High Court to requesting it to direct the Government to direct the Schools that which at the time were even conducting online/virtual classes using video conferencing techniques to safeguard the right of the children that is access to children in the difficult times during this unwarranted pandemic.
The plea was the schools were not function in the months of April and May and they commenced classes only in the month of June, but students had been asked to pay tuition fees for that period as well.
Chief Justice S.Manikumar and Justice Shaji P. Chaly favored the contentions of the Schools and said that maintenance expenditure should be considered. While taking this in considered, the judges also mentioned that it cannot direct CBSE schools to collect uniform fee and that other states like Andra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu etc. have also not revised the school fess rather they have been asked to collect fees on monthly basis and not deny access to educational material stressing on its importance. Further, there have been no hike in school fess, it is the same as last year. However, schools in Kerala were asked to consider the request and allow fee payment on a monthly basis.
The High Court of Punjab and Haryana held that schools are entitled tuition fees irrespective of whether they were offering virtual classes or not. Similarly, The Delhi High Court rejected the plea seeking to issue directions to Directorate of Education asking it to prohibit schools from collection of tuition fee for the lockdown period. While on the other hand, the Uttarakhand High Court has passed an in the month of May 2020 restraining private schools in the state from demanding fees from parents due to the lockdown situation.
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