School Fee Concession Granted To Siblings Cannot Be Claimed As A Matter Of Right: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has observed that the sibling fee relief granted by a school is subject to certain conditions and cannot be claimed as a matter of right.

While dealing with the rustication of two siblings from Delhi Public School, Raj Nagar Ghaziabad due to issue regarding the applicability of sibling fee scheme benefit, Justice Ashutosh Srivastava observed,

“I find that the Sibling Fee Relief under the Circular dated 5.8.2021 issued by the respondent No. 7 is a benefit offered to the parents whose two children are studying in the institution subject to certain riders and cannot be claimed as a matter of right.”

Petitioner No. 1's children, petitioner 2 and 3 took admission in DPS, Raj Nagar where their older sibling had studied. The school administration introduced a Scheme/Circular for fee rebate under the head of COVID relief and Sibling Relief for the academic session 2022-2023-2024. Sibling Relief Scheme provided 50% fee relief to parents who have admitted their two children to the school and such fee relief would be given to the younger sibling who is the biological offspring of the same parents.

Once application was received, it was processed and approved, and credit note would be automatically posted to the younger ward's fee account. The credit note would be posted only upon timely payment of fee every quarter i.e. 5th April, 5th July, 5^th October and 5th January. The scheme was not available to parents who paid school fee in monthly instalments or if the fee payment was received beyond due date. It was available to those parents who deposited the fees in one go on or before the due date. The scheme was available to one child at a time.

The school reserved the right to withdraw the scheme post academic session 2023-2024 or any disciplinary misdemeanour on part of the child.

Counsel for petitioner claimed that after deducting the sibling fee and COVID relief fee, additional demand of fees was raised by the school. Since the school refused to budge, a complaint was filed against the school on the IGRS portal and also before the District Fee Regulatory Committee under the U.P. Self-Financed Independent School (Fee Regulation) Act, 2018. It was submitted that since the school had failed to provide the documents to the Regulatory Committee, a fine of Rs. 1 Lakh was imposed on the school. Consequently, the school struck off the names of petitioners 2 and 3 and issued ante dated Transfer Certificates.

Per contra, respondent contended that the children were suffering due to the actions of their parents who had not deposited the fee in the prescribed manner. Since the second quarterly fees was paid in instalments, the sibling fee rebate had been removed. Accordingly, demand was raised for payment of full fees.

It was further argued that the parents had misbehaved with the teachers and not presented themselves in settlement talks in complaints filed by them. It was submitted that eventually, the school had waived off the fee demand and issued transfer certificates, however the parents continued to send their children to school.

The Court asked the parties to amicably settle the dispute. After arguments from both sides, the Court observed that since the academic session 2023-24 is about to get over, the children could not be admitted in this session. Accordingly, the Court directed the school to re-admit the children in academic session 2024-25. Further, the Court directed both parties to withdraw any cases or complaints filed by them against each other.

Case Title:- Satendra Kumar And 2 Others vs. State Of U.P. And 6 Others 2024 LiveLaw (AB) 62 [WRIT - C No. - 31168 of 2023]

Case citation: 2024 LiveLaw (AB) 62

Counsel for Petitioner :- Ritesh Upadhyay, Shesh Kumar

Counsel for Respondent :- Hridai Narain Pandey, Tarun Agrawal

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