The Delhi government has been directed by the High Court to ask nearly 250 institutions to return the excess amount to parents with nine percent interest. The order comes in the backdrop of the recommendations made by a panel on the unaided private schools’ fee structure. The committee has submitted four reports based on examination of fee structures of unaided private schools. A division bench of Justice BD Ahmed and Justice Siddharth Mridul told the Delhi government that it is free to implement the recommendations of the commitee.
The committee has so far examined the accounts of 605 unaided private schools out of a total 1,172 institutions. Till now, the committee has recommended that 242 schools should return excess fees they have collected from the parents with nine percent interest from 2008 to 2011. The committee found that in around 100 schools, either no records were maintained or the accounts were fudged. It recommended strict action against these schools. The committee report further said that many of the schools in the city were operating without even a bank account and year after year they were granted recognition. The report also found that several of the schools have not been maintaining proper accounts and were not getting their accounts audited as required by the law, and were also not filing annual returns.