Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

2021 Supreme(Chh) 1

IN THE HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH, BILASPUR
P.R. Ramachandra Menon, Parth Prateem Sahu, JJ.
Durg D.P.S Palak Association 2 - Petitioner
Versus
State of Chhattisgarh Through The Secretary, Department Of School Education, Mantralaya and ors. – Respondents
WP (PIL) No. 100 of 2020, WA No. 357, 380, 381, 382, 383, 384, 389, 390, 416 of 2020, 15 of 2021
Decided On : 10-03-2021

Advocates:
Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellant :Shri Sumesh Bajaj, Advocate
For the Respondent:Shri S.C.Verma, Advocate General, Shri Sudeep Agrawal, Deputy Advocate General and Shri Chandresh Shrivastava, Deputy Advocate General, Shri Ashish Shrivastava, Advocate., Shri T.K.Tiwari, Advocate, Shri Manoj Paranjpe and Shri Bharat Sharma, Shri Ramakant Mishra, Assistant Solicitor General

Point of Law: Common grievance of a group of people (parents of the students pursuing their studies in the 4th Respondent/School) projected through the Association of the parents will not make the proceedings as a Public Interest Litigation

Headnote:
Public Interest Litigation - Private educational institutions - 'tuition fees'- 'unaided private sector'-, preventing the private school managements from collecting the tuition fees and also from taking any action for recovery
Finding of the Court –
Writ Petition filed by the Association of the parents of the students pursuing their studies in the 4th Respondent-School is one as good as the writ petition filed by the parents themselves, and hence, it cannot change the colour and characteristic or the nature of the litigation involving 'private interest', to be branded as a Public Interest Litigation. On more than one occasion, has the Petitioner-Association stated in the writ petition including under paragraph 3(B). tnat the 'parents' are not against payment of tuition fees but for pointing out the necessity to fix the fees in terms of the Act, 2020 and that the 'parents' are approaching this Court with a limited prayer seeking some relief in the nature of a buffer, till the Fees Fixation Committee contemplated under the Act, 2020 conclusively decides the tuition fees for the current academic year 2020-202
Result: writ petition is not maintainable hence dismissed

JUDGMENT :

P.R. Ramachandra Menon, J.

1. Judgment passed by the learned Single Judge in Writ Petition (C) No. 1040 of 2020 filed by the Bilaspur Private School Management Association Society, setting aside the impugned orders/circulars dated 01.04.2020 (Annexure P/1) and 22.04.2020 (Annexure P/2) issued by the Director, Public Instructions, preventing the private school managements from collecting the tuition fees and also from taking any action for recovery is put to challenge in all the appeals, except WA No. 15/2021. The learned Single Judge has, however, permitted the private educational institutions to collect only the 'tuition fees' and not any other fees for the current academic session, which has been declared to be the same as that was charged for the previous academic session. WA No. 15/2021 is in fact against the verdict in WP(C) No. 2047/2020 whereby the Writ Petitioners were relegated to move the statutory authority/Government in view of the provisions of the Chhattisgarh Private Schools Fee Regulation Bill 2020 {Chhattisgarh Non Government Schools Fees Regulation Act, 2020 (for short 'the Act, 2020')} for redressal of their grievances. WP(PIL) No. 100/2020 has been filed by an unregistered Association of the parents of the students who are pursuing their studies in the Delhi Public School, Durg, seeking to interdict the steps being pursued to collect the 'tuition fees' till proper fixation of the fees is undertaken by the statutory authority under the Act, 2020.

2. The Appellants in the above appeals (except WA No. 15/2021) were not parties to the writ petition and as such, the said appeals have been filed with a petition seeking for granting leave to file the appeals against the verdict passed by the learned Single Judge. The grievance projected by the Appellants and the Public Interest Litigant is in respect of the tuition fees and such other fees collected by the educational institutions concerned, particulars of which are summarised for easy reference as given below:

Sl.No.	Case No.	Educational Institution Concerned
1.	WA No. 357/2020	The Jain International School, Bilaspur.
2.	WA No. 380/2020	St. Xavier High School, Sarkanda, Bilaspur.
3.	WA No. 381/2020	Loyola School, Rajeev Vihar, Lingiyadih, Bilaspur.
4.	WA No. 382/2020	St. Xavier High School, Vyapar Vihar, Bilaspur.
5.	WA No. 383/2020	Delhi Public School, Tifra, Bilaspur.
6.	WA No. 384/2020	Brilliant Public School, Bahatarai, Bilaspur.
7.	WA No. 389/2020	DAV School, Vasant Vihar, Bilaspur.
8.	WA No. 390/2020	Brilliant Public School, Vyapar Vihar, Bilaspur.
9.	WA No. 416/2020	Delhi Public School, Tifra, Bilaspur.
10.	WA No. 15/2021	Bhavan's R.K. Sarda Vidya Mandir, Raipur
11.	WPPIL 100/2020	Delhi Public School, Durg.

3. WA No. 357/2020 is taken as the lead case and the parties and proceedings are referred to as given therein, except where it is separately referred to.

4. The sequence of events reveals that pursuant to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, the schools were virtually remaining closed from March, 2020 and slowly, by the passage of time, the classes were being taken mostly on the online platform. The educational institutions, as mentioned above are those in the 'unaided private sector' who are not receiving any grant or aid from the Government. They run the establishment on the basis of the fees collected from the students, for paying the salary to the teaching and non-teaching staff, installation of various infrastructure, day to day maintenance and development under different heads. Because of the various reasons, as a consequence of Covid-19 lockdown, the general public was virtually finding it difficult to make both their ends meet and this affected the field of education as well, whereby the parents of the children who were pursuing

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