Forty percentage of Tuition fee as an advance for the academic year 20-21 and the rest of the fees t

Madras High court in its order dated 17.07.2020 made students of unaided private institutions pay 40% of the current tuition fee at the beginning of the academic year and the rest of the fees to be collected after the institutions are reopened and physical classes commence. Mr. Justice N. Anand Venkatesh passed the Order.

The court also mentioned that it is necessary for the courts to be very careful while interfering in the administrative decisions taken by the government. The government order prevented the educational institutions from collecting tuition fees and therefore aggrieved by the same, the unaided private institutions had filed a writ petition against the same order. The unaided private institutions depend on the fees collected from the students. The money is required to pay the salary of the teachers and non-teaching staff without whom the institutions will not be able to function. The other end of the spectrum is that many of the parents are also in the receiving end either because of no income or with a reduced income.

The state government 75% of the tuition fee for the academic year 2020-2021 can be collected in three instalments suggested it. The second instalment of 25% is made payable after the opening of the institutions. This Court does not find any visibility of the institutions reopening and conducting physical classes in the near future.

Taking all the perspectives of the problem into consideration the court issued the following order,

“[a] This interim order passed by this Court will apply to all unaided private institutions across the State of Tamil Nadu. [b] The unaided private institutions shall collect 40% of the tuition fees as an advance fees based on the tuition fees collected during the academic year 2019-2020. This advance fee shall be paid by the students on or before 31.08.2020. [c] The unaided private institutions shall also collect the arrears of fees payable for the academic year 2019-2020 and this arrears fees shall be paid on or before 30.09.2020. [d] If any student has already paid the entire fees including arrears, the same shall not be a ground to claim for refund of the fees. [e] The balance of 35% of the fees based on the tuition fees collected for the academic year 2019-2020, shall be collected within a period of two months from the date on which the institution is reopened and physical classes commences. [f] The fee Committee shall immediately start the process of the determining the tuition fees for the respective institutions and make an attempt to complete the process within a period of eight months starting from August 2020 onwards. [g] The payment of balance if any, shall be determined after the final decision of the fee Committee. [h] The directions given to the fee Committee will not in any way prejudice to the rights of the institutions which have already challenged the jurisdiction of the determination of the fees and which are pending before this Court and the Hon’ble Supreme Court. [i] The teaching and non teaching staff shall not insist for any increment in salary and/or DA, until the restoration of normalcy and further orders of this Court. [j] The State Government is directed to immediately take into consideration the request made by the institutions to supply text books and note books to the students either free of cost or at some nominal rates. For this purpose, the State Government can also get the particulars from the respective Schools regarding the students who are in dire straits and it can also be confined to those students. This direction is issued purely in the interest of the students who should not be deprived of education due to their inability to purchase textbooks and note books. This Court is confident that the State Government will come up with a positive response in this regard. [k] The above directions are issued without prejudice to the rights of the petitioners to argue the writ petitions on all the grounds raised by them in their respective writ petitions.”

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