School fees issue-CM asks AG to file LPA within this week
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh
The Punjab Government will file a Letters Patent Appeal (LPA) in the High Court this week against the decision of a single judge in the matter of payment of school fee during the lockdown period.
The issue came up for discussion informally during Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, after which Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has asked that the LPA should be filed before the Punjab & Haryana High Court within this week, Advocate General Atul Nanda said later.
A single judge of the High Court had, on June 30, ruled that all the schools were entitled to collect tuition fee irrespective of offering online classes during the lockdown. In her ruling, Justice Nirmaljit Kaur had said all schools, whether they offer online classes during the lockdown period or not, are entitled to collect the tuition fee. However, the court ruled, the schools will continue to endeavour and impart online/ distance learning so education is not adversely impacted due to the present or future lockdowns imposed due to the pandemic.
While the court is set to hear appeals against the rulings on July 13, the Punjab Government has decided to move the court for hearing by a division bench in the interest of all the concerned parties, including parents, teachers, staff as well as the school administrators.
The Chief Minister has already made it clear that he is not in favour of schools charging fee from parents if no classes, either offline or online, were held during the period in question.
July,8,2020
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