SHC orders directorate to take action against schools found in contempt

How can I approve fee structures when schools never applied for them, asks private institutions director

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) ordered the Sindh private institutions directorate on Monday to ensure the implementation of the Supreme Court's (SC) order regarding the unscrupulous rise in school fees and take action against those found in contempt of the court's orders. A three-member bench comprising Justice Aqeel Abbasi, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Ashraf Jahan heard the contempt plea.

The court also asked the officials to present details regarding the refund of excessive fees collected by private schools.

Progress update

The SC's orders pertaining to school fees were presented before the court. Sindh Private Institutions Director Dr Mansoob Siddiqui said that Headstart School and Foundation Public School had been notified about the amount of fees due for refunds, however, since the fee structures for City School and Beaconhouse School systems were pending approvals, they were not given estimates of the amount of fees to be refunded. He added that they were fully implementing the apex court's orders.

The counsel for Foundation School told the court that excessive fees were being refunded to the parents. The counsel for City School said that fee challans, after accounting for a 20% cut, had been issued.

Appeals against the high court's orders will be heard by the SC next month. The court remarked that action against contempt of court orders had not been taken as yet because the case was underway in the SC. To this, the petitioner's counsel maintained that the authorities were not implementing the SC's orders.

In that case, the court remarked, the contempt petition should be filed at the SC. The court asked Dr Siddiqui to brief the court over the action taken against Beaconhouse and City Schools. Dr Siddiqui responded that the registrations of the two schools had been cancelled. The court asked him about the revised fee structure of the two schools and whether the students would be repaid the overcharged amount.

Dr Siddiqui said that the matter of the fee structure will be sorted out after the registration is restored. He added that the two schools had never gotten their fee structures approved and asked how he could approve fee structures if the schools never applied for them.

The petitioner's counsel maintained that the stay order for private schools had expired in 2006 but no action was taken. The court remarked that if the schools were sealed, then the students will have their woes filed at the court. The court added that the provincial government should do the needful as the director Dr Siddiqui appears to be helpless and remarked that they may call up the Sindh education secretary.

Dr Siddiqui told the court that the directorate was short of manpower. He added that schools failing to implement court orders should be shut and their owners should face punishment, however, he added, that they could not do so. The court remarked that it seems as if he did not have the competence to do anything. Siddiqui said penalties could be imposed and school owners could be sent to jail for six months. To this, Justice Jahan also remarks he was incompetent.

Petitioner's argument

On the other hand, the counsel of a private school recalled that the order for 20% decrease in fees was subjected to institutions charging in excess of Rs5,000. The counsel for the petitioners maintained that private schools had not implemented the SHC orders dated September 3, 2018, which said that any fee collected in excess of 5% increase should be refunded. They argued that the reduction in the fees should be made as per the last fee structure, adding that the fee had been unscrupulously increased in excess of 20% before SC's orders.

Justice Abbasi in his remarks said that while the argument was valid, the clarification should be presented before the SC.

The hearing was adjourned till February 25.

Earlier directives

Earlier, the Sindh School Education Department issued directives to private schools to comply with Supreme Court orders and reduce their fees by 20% if they were charging more than Rs5,000 per month. Siddiqui passed on these directives through a circular sent to all private school administrations.

The circular warned private schools that action would be taken against them in accordance with the Registration Act if they failed to comply with SC orders passed on January 1. It said that inspections teams comprising officials of Sindh private institutions directorate will visit schools to ensure compliance with judicial orders. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2019.