Date:28/04/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/04/28/stories/2004042800771500.htm

National

Norms for private unaided schools in Delhi

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, APRIL 27. The Supreme Court today came to the rescue of parents by framing guidelines for private unaided schools to prevent commercialisation of education in Delhi. The Court directed all the recognised and unaided public schools in the capital to furnish to the Directorate of Education their annual financial statements, including profit and loss accounts and money received as the school fees.

A three-judge Bench, comprising the Chief Justice, V.N. Khare, Justice S.B. Sinha and Justice S.H. Kapadia, by a majority of 2:1 asked the Director of Education to look into the land allotment letters of all such schools and find out whether the conditions laid down therein had been complied with or not. It empowered the Director to intervene if it was found that the schools charged excess fees.

The Bench was disposing of a batch of appeals by public schools, including Modern School, against a judgment of the Delhi High Court regarding the fee levied by such schools. Upholding the judgment and the powers of the Director of Education, the Bench issued fresh guidelines in addition to those issued by the Delhi Government in 1999.

Writing the majority judgment, Justice Kapadia said that every school had to submit to the Directorate of Education every year the statement of expenses. The Bench was of the view that this was necessary to prevent commercialisation of education.

The Judges empowered the Director of Education to ascertain whether the terms of allotment of land by the Government had been complied with by the schools; one of the clauses of allotment was that 25 per cent of the seats should be earmarked for weaker sections and free grants awarded to them.