On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court asked the Delhi government the reasons for not implementing its direction and recommendations of the expert panel to ensure that all private schools return the excess fees charged by them.
A bench comprised of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Mukta Gupta said "the high court had issued the direction for refund of excess fees in August 2011 but no reasons have been shown why steps have not been taken to implement this order". The bench also observed that the government has not given any reasons for not implementing the recommendations which were given by Justice Anil Dev Committee.
"Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to ask the Principal Secretary, Education, Government of Delhi to file a status report on affidavit apprising this court of the steps taken by them in consonance with the directions of this court and the recommendations of the committee, before the next date of hearing (on May 30)," the bench said.
The Panel earlier, had recommended refund of excess fees by more than 500 private schools in Delhi.
The NGO, on whose plea the directions were issued by the High Court in 2011, told the bench that order of court were not followed and implemented by the government and that more than 500 schools are yet to return Rs. 350 crore of excess fees taken from students.