R.BANUMATHI,J.

The writ petitioner schools, which are recognised under CBSE/ICSE Regulations, have filed these writ petitions challenging the applicability of Tamilnadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act 2009 (Tamil Nadu Schools Fee Act, 2009) to CBSE/ICSE Schools and the fee determined by School Fee Determination Committee on the ground that it is vitiated by arbitrariness.

2. In W.P.No.21310 of 2011, Writ Petitioner Association seeks for a writ of declaration to declare Section 3(3) and Section 7(3) of Tamil Nadu Schools Fee Act, 2009 as ultra vires and beyond the scope of the Act and forbear the respondents from applying the provisions of Tamil Nadu Schools Fee Act, 2009.

3. The writ petitioners are self financing schools governed by CBSE Regulations/ICSE Regulations. Earlier, by order dated 3.5.2012 in a batch of Writ Petitions _ W.P.No.8489 of 2011 etc., filed by the private schools recognised under Tamil Nadu Recognised Private Schools (Recognition) Act, we have referred to background facts and the provisions of Act No.22 of 2009 and the circumstances under which the impugned orders thereon came to be passed. Since the applicability of T.N.Schools Fee Act, 2009 to C.B.S.E./ICSE Schools is under challenge, these batch of writ petitions were ordered to be segregated and heard separately. For proper appreciation of the contentious issues raised and for sake of completion, we need to refer to the background facts of constitution of Tamil Nadu Schools Fee Determination Committee and also the circumstances under which the impugned orders were passed.

4. 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 thereto. 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, Government framed the Rules, viz., Tamilnadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Rules 2009, 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 2010(4) CTC 353 - 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, First Bench of this Court upheld its validity of the Act 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.

5. 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 respective Chief Educational Officers. After getting response from the individual schools, on 7.5.2010, orders were issued by the Fee Determination Committee fixing the fee to be collected for three academic years 2010-2011 to 2012-13. On receipt of such fee determination orders, about 6400 schools have submitted their objections under Section 6(3) of the Act objecting to the determination of fee fixed by the Committee. The Committee issued a Press Release on 11.