Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court,on Friday, directed a private unaided school not to deny access to online classes or withhold result of any student for non payment of fees.
Adivision bench consisting of Justice Sunil Shukre and Justice Anil Kilor–while hearing a petition filed by parents Ritesh and Nehal Agrawal against Centre Point School, Katol Road branch,for alleged denial of access to their son Shivansh to online classes for non-payment of some portion of fees — noted that in view of Supreme Court ruling such denial to classes and non-supply of result was not permissible.
The High Court noted that for non-payment of fees, arrears or outstanding of earlier fees, the school authorities cannot debar any student from attending either online classes or physical classes or with hold examination results of any student.
The Supreme Court had permitted the schools to collect fees of academic year 2019-20 and 2020-21 in six equal installments treating feesnotifiedin2019-20 as benchmark.
According to petitioner parents they had deposited Rs 81,080/- fees and only Rs 29,040/- was outstanding, which they intended to pay latest by August 31.
However, the respondent-school discontinued the online access to their son Shivansh, who has progressed from ClassVI to Class VII.
The High Court, while issuing notice to respondents including Union Government, CBSE, and State Education Department, directed the school to comply with this directives immediately and warned that non-compliance would be viewed seriously.
The matter has been kept after two weeks forfinal adjudication. Adv A S Ingole appeared for the petitioners while AGP Nivedita Mehta represented the State.
