Private school's management given notice on contempt plea

Beaconhouse cancelled a student’s admission for not paying tuition fee more than govt approved 5% increase

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) issued on Tuesday notice to the management of the Beaconhouse School System (BSS) for allegedly committing contempt of court’s order by cancelling a student’s admission for not paying tuition fee more than the government approved 5% increase.

A two-judge bench directed them to file comments on the contempt application by January 19.

The judges were told that the court had earlier issued a restraining order, directing the BSS management to not increase tuition fee by more than 5%. However, it was alleged that the management had issued notices to various students for cancellation of their admission in case their parents did not pay excessive fee. The BSS management had also cancelled the admission of a student, Taha Muneeb, for the same reason.

It was argued that the school management’s action was a clear and deliberate violation of the court’s order. Therefore, contempt of the court’s order proceedings may be initiated against those responsible for wilfully and deliberately committing it.

Case history

Last year, the court had issued notices to the administrators of The City School, Foundation Public School (FPS) and BSS and also restrained the school managements from charging more than a 5% increase in fee till the next date.



The parents of more than 200 students, currently studying in different private schools, had moved the court against the fresh hike in tuition fee. They had named the provincial education department’s secretary, the director of education and administrators of FPS, Headstart School, BSS and The City School as respondents.

In their pleas, the petitioners said their children were currently studying in different classes at these private educational institutes, where the management had recently increased the tuition fee for different grades all of a sudden. The parents said they were informed through letters about the exorbitant fee increase.

The judges were told that due to the unprecedented hike in the fee, their children will be deprived of their basic right to get high-quality education, thus putting their futures at stake.



It was argued that the raise in fee was in violation of the Sindh Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Control) Ordinances of 2003 and 2015, which permitted an increase of not more than 5% annually.

Yet, school managements have increased the fee by 10% to 12%, which is a violation of the law, as well as the notification issued by the education department wherein only a 5% increase had been prescribed by the government, the parents alleged.



The court was pleaded to declare the exorbitant hike in fees beyond 5% as illegal and restrain school managements from taking any action against their children for the purpose of collecting the increased fee.

They also sought the establishment of a monitoring body to scrutinise the increase in fee.