NEW DELHI: With Delhi high court giving interim relief to private unaided schools on fees, messages and circulars have started reaching parents asking them to pay the increased fees and arrears. Directorate of Education is yet to file a petition challenging the order.Some of the schools have given a timeframe within which the fees have to be paid, while a few have threatened to withhold results on non-payment. “The school committee will decide on how the fees are to be collected. We generally stagger the timeframe to make it convenient for parents,” said a school’s principal.The court had quashed the 2018 order of DoE barring private schools from increasing fees for implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission. The earlier order of 10% hike was withdrawn by DoE following complaints about arbitrary increase of fees. The schools had then moved the court on March 16.Khagesh Jha, advocate and member of Justice for All, said, “This is an interim order subject to the final outcome, which is the audit of school finances. Out of the 300 schools built on government land, around 100 of them had not applied for approval. The proposal of close to 130 schools was rejected. The decision of around 70 schools remains and they can increase the fees till the final audit.”Meanwhile, a few of the schools whose fee proposal was rejected said that the portal for applying for fee increase for 2018-19 and 2019-20 has not been opened. A prominent school in south Delhi was informed that its proposal for the 2017-18 session was rejected in January this year. This school and a few others said the last hike in fees was approved in 2015-16.A DoE official said they were still going through the court judgment. “We will file our application in the court in a few days. Till that time the schools have a right to increase the fees,” the official added.Sources said DoE will soon be releasing the audit report of the schools that had submitted proposals for a fee hike. Parents, however, have questioned the delay. “We received messages from the school to pay arrears of about Rs 11,000 due from April 2017 to March 2019 before March 23 or the declaration of results. We have no option but to pay. What happened to the CM’s announcement that they have stopped private schools from increasing fees?” asked a parent who lives in Vikaspuri.

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