Schools can initiate action for recovery of fees from defaulting parents: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court recently clarified that it is open to school management to initiate appropriate action for recovery of the outstanding dues from parents who have defaulted payment of school fees of their wards on time (Progressive Schools Association v. State of Rajasthan)..The order was passed on October 1 by a Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and CT Ravikumar on applications filed by schools stating that the last date for paying the installments referred to in the May 2021 judgment of the top court had already expired long back and despite that there were some parents/wards who are still in arrears and have committed default."It is open to the School Management to initiate appropriate action for recovery of the outstanding dues/amount, if any, in accordance with law. At the same time, if the concerned parent/ward seeks some indulgence for just reasons, it will be open to the School Management to consider such request compassionately. Besides this, nothing more is required to be said," the order said..On May 3, the apex court had held that States cannot cite COVID-19 pandemic to impinge upon the autonomy of private unaided schools to fix and collect “just” and “permissible” school fees from parents.The May verdict had come in a series of appeals filed by private unaided schools in Rajasthan against government notifications to defer/reduce school fees in aftermath of COVID induced lockdown from March 2020.The May judgment directed the school management not to debar any student from attending either on-line classes or physical classes on account of non-payment of fees, arrears/outstanding fees including the installments, referred to in the judgment, and also said that the schools should not withhold the results of the examinations of any student on that account..The top court has now clarified that action can be taken against parents who have not paid the school fees after the expiry of installment date. .The Court in its October 1 order further reiterated that the recovery process should be strictly in accordance with law and as per the May 3 judgment. Senior Advocates Vikas Singh along with advocates Azeem Samuel, Daisy Hanna and Vivek Paul Oriel appeared for the petitioner schools.Senior Advocate Manish Singhvi represented the State of Rajasthan. .[Read Order]