Calcutta HC orders parents to pay 50% of due schools fees to avoid action

The bench directed the educational institutions covered by this public interest litigation (PIL) to send to each defaulting guardian a notice within a week stating the outstanding fees as of date from March 2020.

New Delhi: The Calcutta High Court on Friday (August 6, 2021) directed that at least 50 percent of the due school fee of students will have to be paid by defaulting parents within three weeks, failing which it will consider allowing the institutes involved in the litigation to take punitive action including removal of the name of the students from the roll of the school. The court said that it will also consider that for those students who have taken the board exams for classes 10 and 12 and passed, "a direction is to be made to the respective boards to suspend" their qualification and certificates till the school fees are paid. Expressing displeasure at a section of financially stable parents allegedly taking advantage of the current pandemic situation to not pay fees of their wards on time, a division bench comprising Justices I P Mukerji and Moushumi Bhattacharya ordered that the parents must pay at least 50 percent of the dues within three weeks.