IHC reserves decision on maintainability of private schools’ case

ISLAMABAD (APP): The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday reserved its judgment on maintainability of a petition filed by private schools challenging deduction of 20% in student fee.

Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the case filed by Private Schools’ Association regarding the above matter.

During the course of proceeding, the chief justice asked the petitioners’ lawyer to read out the notification of Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) regarding the deduction in fees.

The petitioners’ lawyer Shireen Imran said that online classes of students were continuing due to COVID-19. The institutions were paying the same expenditures including building rents and salaries of teachers, he said.

The lawyer said that around 33,000 teachers were associated with private institutions in federal capital. He said that PEIRA had not heard the stakeholders before taking such decision. He further said that the matter of fee structure of private schools was still pending with ICA.

The chief justice observed that the PEIRA had taken this decision in extraordinary situation. The bench remarked that the Supreme Court of India had given a judgment that children couldn’t be expelled from schools even they didn’t pay fee during COVID-19. The court ordered the petitioner’s lawyer to also read the decision of Indian’s top court and asked that if the private institutions were facing loss. The lawyer said that fees were not paid since eight months by the students. After listening arguments, the court reserved the decision on maintainability of the case.