Ms. G. ROHINI, J.

1. This petition has been filed as a Public Interest Litigation seeking a direction that no private unaided school in Delhi which has been allotted land by the Delhi Development Authority shall enhance the fee without the prior sanction of the Director of Education.

2. It is pleaded in the petition:

i) that as per Master Plan 2021 an allottee of land for the purpose of establishing an educational institution is under an obligation not to increase the tuition fees without prior sanction from the Director of Education (DoE) as held in Modern School vs. Union of India & Ors. (2004) 5 SCC 583.

ii) that the unaided educational institutions in Delhi have failed to comply with the same and have been enhancing the fees without taking the prior permission of the DoE and thus indulging in profiteering and commercialization of school education.

3. The petitioner therefore, seeks a direction to the Director of Education (DoE), Govt. of NCT of Delhi to ensure compliance of terms of allotment letter regarding prior sanction for any increase in tuition fees by all the unaided private schools situated in public land allotted by Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and further to ensure that the fee fixation shall be on the basis of fee paying capacity of the residents of the locality for whose benefit the public land was allotted. The petitioner also seeks a direction to DDA to ensure compliance of Master Plan of Delhi (MPD), 2021 by initiating appropriate action against the erring institutions for violation of the terms of allotment.

4. We have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner as well as the learned counsels appearing for the respondents.

5. Section 17 of the Delhi School Education Act, 1973 (For Short “DSE Act”) which provides for fees and other charges reads as under:

“17. Fees and other charges.-(1) No aided school shall levy fee or collect any other charge or receive any other payment except those specified by the Director.

(2) Every aided school having different rates of fees or other charges or different funds shall obtain prior approval of the prescribed authority before levying such fees or collecting such charges or creating such funds.

(3) The manager of every recognised school, shall before the commencement of each academic session, file with the Director a full statement of the fees to be levied by such school during the ensuing academic session, and except with the prior approval of the Director, no such school shall charge, during that academic session, any fee in excess of the fee specified by its manager in the said statement.”

6. The applicability of Section 17(3) to unaided schools and regulation of quantum of fees charged by them was considered in detail by the Supreme Court in Modern School vs. Union of India & Ors. (2004) 5 SCC 583 arising out of the order passed by a Division Bench of this Court in Delhi Abhibhavak Mahasangh v. UOI and ors., AIR 1999, Del. 124 in a batch of appeals. In the said case, Division Bench of this Court held that no permission from Director of Education is necessary before or after fixing tuition fee, however, in case such fixing is found to be irrational and arbitrary, there are ample powers under the Act and Rules to issue directions to school to rectify it before resorting to harsh measures. It was also held that the question of commercialization of education and exploitation of parents by individual schools can be authoritatively determined on thorough examination of accounts and other records of each school. This court also declared that the Delhi School Education Act and the Rules framed thereunder prohibited transfer of funds from the schools to the society/trust or to other schools run by the same society/trust and appointed a Committee to examine the academics of each of the recognized unaided schools in Delhi. On the basis of the report submitted by the said Committee, the Director of Education, Govt. of NCT of Delhi issued certain directions to the Managing