COMMON ORDER:

The petitioners in this batch of writ petitions are different Private Unaided School Associations, Junior College Management Associations, Junior Colleges and High Schools. In these writ petitions they are challenging the propriety and legality of G.O.Ms.No.53, School Education (PS) Department, dated 24.08.2021 and G.O.Ms.No.54, School Education (IE.A2) Department, dated

24.08.2021.

2. Briefly stating, G.O.Ms.No.53 spells out that the Andhra Pradesh School Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission (for short, ‘the APSERMC) in its meeting held on 24.04.2021 reviewed and determined the fee structure for Nursery to 10th class in private unaided schools in the State of A.P. for the block period 2021- 2022 to 2023-2024 in terms of Section 9(ii) of the Andhra Pradesh School Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission Act, 2019 (for short, ‘the Act 21 of 2019’) by considering the plight of common man/parents and also keeping in view the judgment of the Hon’ble Apex Court in the case of TMA Pai Foundation v. State of Karnataka1, Islamic Academy of Education v. State of Karnataka2 and Modern School v. Union of India3 and other

1 (2002) 8 SCC 481

2 MANU/SC/0580/2003

judgments and forwarded its recommendations to the Government regarding fee structure for Nursery to 10th class of private unaided schools in the State of A.P. for the aforesaid block period. Pursuant thereof the Government of A.P. issued the notification by fixing the Composite Tuition/Annual Fee for schools collectible in three equal instalments by dividing schools location wise i.e., Gram Panchayats, Municipalities and Municipal Corporations. The fee structure is prescribed as per the location of the school and class wise. The G.O. inter alia reads about the Transportation charges and Hostel (Boarding and Lodging) charges etc.

(a) Whereas, the G.O.Ms.No.54 would depict that the APSERMC in its meeting held on 03.03.2021 reviewed and determined the fee structure of two years Intermediate course of private unaided junior colleges in the State of A.P. for block period 2021-2022 to 2023-2024 and made recommendations to the Government of A.P. and accordingly, the Government have issued notification in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 7 of the Andhra Pradesh Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Prohibition of Capitation Fee) Act, 1983 (Act 5 of 1983) [for short, ‘Capitation Fee Act, 1983’]. Like in the earlier G.O., the Composite Tuition / Annual Fee of junior colleges is fixed basing on the location of the junior colleges in Gram Panchayats, Municipalities and Municipal Corporations. This G.O. also inter alia deals with the

3 MANU/SC/042/2004 = AIR 2004 SC 2236

Transportation charges, Hostel (Boarding and Lodging) charges, maintenance of accounts etc.

3. The legality and validity of the above G.O.s is challenged in these writ petitions.

(a) The facts in all these writ petitions are more or less identical but for slight variations. Since the ultimate prayer in all these writ petitions is to set aside the two impugned GOs, it is considered apposite to adjudicate all these petitions by this common order treating W.P.No.18993/2021 as a lead case.

(b) The petitioner in W.P.No.18993/2021 is an Association of Independent Schools Management. Its case is that its member schools are imparting elementary and secondary education by affiliating themselves with CBSE and ICSE. Their schools are different from the regular schools and other public or private aided or unaided institutions either in composition, infrastructure facilities or teaching methodology. Some of their schools are offering various international curriculums like International General Certificate of secondary education, Cambridge (IGCSE) and International Baccalaureate Program (IBP), Geneva to commensurate with the international standards. Their schools have state of art indoor and outdoor amenities, digital classrooms, learning resource centres with extensive collection of books, DVD