Common Order

R.BANUMATHI,J.

1. The writ petitioners, who are unaided private schools, have filed these writ petitions challenging the final order/ fee structure prescribed by School Fee Determination Committee on the ground of arbitrariness and that it is not in conformity with Tamilnadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act 2009 (Tamil Nadu Act 22 of 2009).

2. All the writ petitioners are self financing schools and not getting any financial aid from the Government or other Government sources. Some of the writ petitioners are recognised under Tamil Nadu Private Schools Regulation Act; few others are recognised under Code of Regulations for Matriculation Schools or Code of Regulations for Anglo Indian Schools. In so far as Schools recognised under CBSE Regulations or ICSE regulations, the applicability of Tamilnadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009 is under challenge and those writ petitions challenging the applicability of the Act were ordered to be segregated. Since common points for determination arise in all these writ petitions, all of them were heard together and shall stand disposed of by this common judgment.

3. Background facts:- Till 2009, all private unaided schools like the writ petitioner schools were fixing their own fee structure and collecting the same from the students either as annual fee or term fee or monthly fee. Tamil Nadu Government enacted a law Tamilnadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act, 2009 (hereinafter, referred to as "the Act") on 07.08.2009 to provide for the regulation of collection of fee by the Schools in the State of Tamil Nadu and matters connected therewith and incidental. Section 2 of the Act contains definitions.

4. As per Section 3 of the said Act, there was a prohibition on Government school or aided school from collecting fee in excess of the fee fixed by the Government for admission of pupils to any Standard or course of study in the school. In terms of Sub-Section (2) of Section 3, no fee in excess of the fee determined by the Committee under the Act shall be collected for admission of pupils to any Standard or course of study in a private school. Section 6 of the Act stipulates the factors to be taken into account to determine the fee leviable by a private school. Section 7 deals with the powers and functions of the Committee and the procedure to be followed by the Committee.

5. Section 16 is the enabling provision to make rules for carrying out all or any of the purposes of the Act. In exercise of the powers conferred under Section 16 of the Act, Tamilnadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Rules 2009, Government framed the Rules, which came into force on 7.12.2009. The vires of the Act and the Rules were challenged in a batch of writ petitions. In the judgment dated 9.4.2010 in the case of Tamilnadu Nursery Matriculation and Higher Secondary Schools Association (Regd.) rep.by its General Secretary Vs. The State of Tamilnadu rep.by the Principal secretary, Department of School Education, Fort St.George, Chennai -9 and 4 others (2010(4) CTC 353), First Bench of this Court upheld its validity except Section 11 of the Act and Rules 4(4) and 4(5) of the Rules, which gave power to the educational authorities for entering the School for such inspection and seizure. As against the said judgment, Special Leave Petition was filed before the Supreme Court in S.L.P.No.13428 of 2010 and the same was dismissed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court by order dated 11.05.2010.

6. Even before the challenge to the validity of the Act, the Government by G.O.(Ms) .No.320, School Education Department, dated 7.12.2009, constituted the Committee under the Chairmanship of Justice K.Govindarajan, a retired Judge of this Court and the Committee prepared the questionnaire and sent the same to 10934 private schools through Chief Educational Officer. After getting response from the individual schools, on 7.5.2010, orders were issued by the Fee Determination Commi