The Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the Kerala CBSE School Management Association to file a statement before the Court explaining "the concessions that they can offer to the students, taking note of the extenuating circumstances that most of the citizens are pushed into on account of the dreaded pandemic".
Justice Devan Ramachandran issuing the order also asked to explain under what heads they are permitting their member schools to charge fees for the academic year 2020-2021.
Acting on the petition filed by the school managements, the court directed to file the statement within ten days and posted the hearing for October 13.
The petitioners alleged that the parents of the students are unfairly taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic and are refusing to pay the fees for the Academic Year 2020-2021.
They sought a directive to the State Police Chief to ensure that no disruptions to the functioning of the various schools are caused by anyone, including the parents of the students. They claimed that they are entitled to charge the fee as they had charged for the year 2019-2020.
The court observed that the managements have not explained, even in the pleadings on record, as to how that can be done, when many of the facilities offered physically are now being denied to the students on account of the online classes.
"Court does not have any clarity as to how the petitioner - Kerala CBSE Management Association has dealt with the vexing issue as to the charging of fees during the lockdown period," the order said.
( With inputs from ANI )
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