Gujarat High Court
Shrimati I. N. Tekravala High ... vs The Fee Regulatory Committee, ... on 6 January, 2022
Bench: Bhargav D. Karia
C/SCA/20260/2021 ORDER DATED: 06/01/2022
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 20260 of 2021
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SHRIMATI I. N. TEKRAVALA HIGH SCHOOL
Versus
THE FEE REGULATORY COMMITTEE, SURAT ZONE
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Appearance:
MS TEJAL VASHI FOR MR VH DESAI(298) for the Petitioner(s) No. 1
for the Respondent(s) No. 1,2
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CORAM:HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE BHARGAV D. KARIA
Date : 06/01/2022
ORAL ORDER
Heard learned advocate Ms.Tejal Vashi for the
petitioner.
1. By this petition under Article 227 of the
Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed
for the following reliefs :
"(a) This Honourable Court may be pleased to issue a writ
of mandamus or any other appropriate, writ, order of
direction In the nature of mandamus and further be
pleased to quash and set aside the judgment and order
passed by the respondent no.I dated 13.3.2020 (Annexure-
E) and also the judgment and order passed by the
respondent No.2 dated 7.7.2021 received on 19.7.2021
(Annexure-G) and approve the proposal forwarded by the
petitioner on 1.3.2019 (Annexure-A);
(b) Pending the admission, hearing and final disposal of
this petition, this Honourable Court may be pleased to
suspend the execution, operation and implementation of
the judgment and order passed by the respondent no.1
dated 13.3.2020 (Annexure-E) and also the judgment and
order passed by the respondent No.2 dated 7.7.2021
received on 19.7.2021 (Annexure-G) and approve the
proposal forwarded by the petitioner on 1.3.2019
(Annexure-A) and allow the petitioner to charge
Rs.75,000/- from the students;
C/SCA/20260/2021 ORDER DATED: 06/01/2022
(c) Grant such other and further order/s as may be deemed
fit and proper in the interest of justice."
2. The brief facts of the case are as under :
2.1. After Introduction of the Gujarat Self
Financed School (Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017
for the academic year 2019-20, the School
management has submitted a proposal on 01.03.2019
and requested to sanction the proposal of
charging fees of Rs.75,000/- per year per
student.
2.2. It is the case of the petitioner that
without considering any of the submissions made
in the proposal and without even hearing the
petitioner school on 18.09.2019, the respondent
no.1 has passed provisional order and sanctioned
fees of Rs.27,000/-.
2.3. Thereafter, the petitioner School filed
representations dated 26.09.2019 and 04.11.2019
and requested the respondent No.1 to reconsider
and pass the order determining the fees of
Rs.75,000/- suggested by the petitioner.
2.4. It is the case of the petitioner that
the respondent no.1 in response to the said
representations fixed the hearing on 13.12.2019.
The petitioner school appeared and submitted a
C/SCA/20260/2021 ORDER DATED: 06/01/2022
written submission in support of the proposal
dated 01.03.2019. It is the case of the
petitioner that considering the representation
made during the hearing, the respondent no.1 has
reconsidered and passed the order on 04.03.2020
and granted the permission to the petitioner
school to charge Rs.47,250/- instead of
Rs.27,000/- as fixed by eariler order dated
18.09.2019.
2.5. It is the case of the petitioner that on bare
perusal of the order dated 13.03.2020, it appears
that none of the submissions made by the
petitioner for sanctioning the fees of
Rs.75,000/- as per the proposal is taken into
Consideration. It is the case of the petitioner
that the respondent no.1 while passing the Order
dated 13.03.2020 has completely ignored to
consider the capital expenditure incurred by the
petitioner and also the expenditure incurred by
the petitioner for the purpose of counselling the
students, providing the study materials,
maintenance, advertisement expenses, purchasing
of library books and the rent towards the school
building along with other miscellaneous expenses
and therefore, the petitioner preferred revision
application No.3 of 2021 under Section 12 of the
Gujarat Self Financed School (Regulation of Fees)
Act, 2017 (for short 'the Act, 2017') before the
C/SCA/20260/2021 ORDER DATED: 06/01/2022
respondent no.2.
2.6. It is the case of the petitioner that
after a period of more than 10 months, the
respondent no.2 fixed the hearing on 30.06.2021
by virtual hearing. The petitioner Managing
Trustee, Kaushal Desai appeared and pointed out
the documents of the capital expenditure and
other expenditure which the School spent.
2.7. It is the case of the petitioner that
written submission was also submitted before the
respondent no.2. The respondent No.2 passed the
order on 07.07.2021 and dismissed the Revision
Application filed by the petitioner.
3.1. Learned advocate Ms.Vashi appearing for the
petitioner submitted that the respondent No.1-Fee
Regulatory Committee and the respondent No.2-Fee
Revision Committee have disallowed the
expenditure of Rs.48,04,302/- out of total
estimated expenditure of Rs.1,00,11,457/- while
determining the fees for the year 2018-2019 and
2019-2020 without considering the documents
produced on record only on the ground that
invoices, bills, receipts and vouchers of the
expenditures are not submitted by the petitioner
before the respondent No.1-Committee.
3.2. It was further submitted that the respondent
No.2-Fee Revision Committee has not assigned any
C/SCA/20260/2021 ORDER DATED: 06/01/2022
reason for accepting the findings given by the
respondent No.1-Committee and merely, by stating
that the order is supported by assigning reasons,
no interference is required and hence, the order
passed by the respondent No.2-Committee is
without any reason and is liable to be quashed
and set aside.
3.3. It was further submitted that the petitioner
has made a detailed proposal for fixation of fee
structure of the school for the academic years
2018-2019 and 2019-2020 by producing audited
accounts, provisional accounts, certificates of
chartered accountants and other documents and
evidence as required under the Rules framed under
the provisions of Gujarat Self Finance
(Regulation of Fees) Act, 2017.
3.4. It was submitted that without considering
such documentary evidences on record, the Fee
Regulatory Committee has committed an error by
disallowing the following expenditure as per
paragraph Nos.9 and 10 of the order dated
04.03.2020 :
"9. School has proposed total expenditure at
Rs.1,00,11,457/-. School has not justify the other
expenses. School has not submitted any substantive i.e.
invoices, bills, receipts, vouchers of those expenses and
therefore we have disallow following expenditure.
(a) Repair & maintenance: 143183
(b) Advertisement Expenses 76802
(c) Management Expenses 40000
(d) Building Rent 144000
C/SCA/20260/2021 ORDER DATED: 06/01/2022
(e) Allen Test 544000
(f) Library upgrade 125000
(g) Networking in Lab 41800
(h) Misc.expenses 25000
1139785
10. The school has projected following capital
expenditure
(a) Capital Expenditure 1745517
(b) C.P.U. 150000
(c) Lab Upgrade 200000
(d) Educational Software 1000000
(e) Scholarship 484000
(f) Server 60000
(g) Sign Board 25000
3664517
These being capital expenditure and not revenue
expenditure, we have disallowed the same."
3.5. Referring to the above dis-allowance, it was
submitted that petitioner-School estimated
projected expenditure for the year 2018-2019 and
2019-2020 on the basis of the actual expenditure
incurred for the year 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 and
therefore, the Fee Regulatory Committee without
assigning any reason contrary to the provisions
of Section 10 of the Act, 2017 has committed an
error by not determining the fees of Rs.5,000/-
as proposed by the petitioner.
4. Considering the above submissions as well as
the material on record, it appears that the
petitioner has submitted the proposal for the
fees for year 2018-2019 of Rs.75,000/- to be
charged from the students of the School run by
the petitioner. On perusal of the proposal, it
appears that the statements were filed as
C/SCA/20260/2021 ORDER DATED: 06/01/2022
required for showing the expenditure incurred for
past two years i.e. 2016-2017 and 2017-2018.
However, there is nothing on record to show how
the projected expenditure are stated by the
petitioner in the proposal made for determination
of the fees by the respondent No.1-Committee.
5. On bare perusal of the expenditure which are
dis-allowed by the respondent No.1-Committee
reflects that there was an capital expenditure of
Rs.10 Lakhs towards the education software and
capital expenditure of Rs.17,45,517/- which are
all on estimated basis without providing any
justification for the same by the petitioner
before the respondent No.1-Committee. In such
circumstances, when there are concurrent
findings of fact arrived at by the respondents,
no interference is required to be made by
exercising extraordinary jurisdiction under
Article 227 of the Constitution of India.
6. The petition is therefore, being devoid of
any merit, is dismissed with no order as to
costs.
(BHARGAV D. KARIA, J)
PALAK
