Chandigarh, July 16 A Class V student of St Joseph’s Senior Secondary School, Sector 44-D, has written to the District Education Officer alleging that the school has withheld the transfer certificate over non-clearance of dues. The letter read, “Since my father was not able to afford the high fee of this expensive school, I applied for admission in Jawahar Navodya Vidyalaya (JNV) and submitted the application for the admission test in February 2019. The test was held in April and I got qualified for the admission at JNV.” The letter further read, “My father submitted an application for the issuance of the required transfer certificate, but the school is now refusing to issue my transfer certificate and they are pressuring my father to first deposit the entire fee July till 31, otherwise they will not issue the transfer certificate which I need to submit at my new school immediately.” The student maintained that demand for fee by the school is uncalled for as they had informed the school in advance about seeking admission in another school. “If I am unable to submit my transfer certificate at Jawahar Navodya Vidyalaya, I am afraid that I may not be able to join the classes and my career is at stake,” the letter read. In a similar case, the Delhi High Court last week ruled that schools cannot withhold transfer certificates of students in case of non-payment of fees. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) last year issued instructions to private schools not to harass children with fee-related issues. The commission noted that school fee is a financial matter between the school authorities and parents. Nitin Goyal, a member of the Chandigarh Parents Association, said, “It is a settled law that no school has any authority to deny transfer certificates and other documents when children opt to move to other schools. If at all there exists any legitimate claims against parents, the school can sue the parents for realising the same, but the future of the children should not be affected.”

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