On Thursday, the Kerala High Court directed the managements of CBSE schools in the state to file a statement before it explaining under what heads the fees are being charged for the 2020-21 academic year.
The court also asked them to explain what concessions they can offer to students, taking note of the extenuating circumstances that most citizens have been pushed into on account of the pandemic. The court directed them to file the statement within ten days and posted the case to October 13.
Justice Devan Ramachandran issued the order on a petition filed by the school managements. The petitioners alleged that the parents of the students are unfairly taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic and are refusing to pay the fees for the 2020-21 academic year. Hence, they sought a directive to the state police chief to ensure that no disruptions to the functioning of the various schools are caused by anyone, including the parents of the students.
They claimed that they are entitled to charge fees as they had charged for the year 2019-20. The court observed that the managements have not explained, even in the pleadings on record, how that can be done when many of the facilities offered physically are now being denied to the students on account of the online classes.
Meanwhile, the court also extended the interim order not to expel any students from online classes for not paying fees, but on the condition that the parents of the students pay the entire arrears of fees, up to the time the school was shut down on account of the COVID-19 lockdown, within a period of one month.
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