Setting up fee regulation panel mammoth exercise: DPS to HC

Constitution of a school-level fee regulation committee (SLFRC) is a "mammoth exercise" which cannot be concluded within 10 days for the upcoming academic session starting April 1, the Delhi Public School (DPS) Society on Thursday told the Delhi High Court. A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia was hearing petitions by several schools' associations challenging a February 1 notification by the Delhi government asking schools to set up the SLFRC within 10 days.

Seeking a stay, senior counsel Puneet Mittal, appearing for DPS Society, contended that as per the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Act, selection of five parents for the SLFRC has to be done through a public draw of lots in the school premises after due notice, and it cannot be concluded in a rushed manner. "25,000 students in Delhi is what we have.. So it's a mammoth exercise. It is not an exercise at the click of a button.

It is not desired to be like that. It is not designed to be like that. It is an exercise involving a lot of resources, and surely this can wait," he argued. Mittal also emphasized that while the SLFRC must include at least one member belonging to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes or socially and educationally backwards classes, the schools had no such data with them as there was no mandate on them to maintain such a record.

"In school, from elementary education to higher secondary education, there is not even a question asked at any stage on which religion or caste you belong to. We have admission in Delhi only on point-based system," he explained.