PHC directs DPO to probe criminal liability against owners of school

Humayun Khan

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court announced decision against unregistered private school by imposing fine of Rs,0.2 Million and directed District Police Officer to initiate criminal proceedings against owners.

The Peshawar High Court has declared the running of unregistered private schools to be illegal and directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Private School Regulatory Authority (KP-PSRA) to impose a fine of Rs. 200,000 on an unregistered private school in Mardan. The High Court has further directed the DPO Mardan to probe into the case to initiate criminal proceedings against the owners.

The case was instituted by a student named Hira Bibi, whose council Advocate Gohar Rahman argued before the court that students of the Leeds Campus School and College Mardan were not being allowed to sit-in, in the upcoming examination of FSc 2nd year.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Private School Regulatory Authority was represented by Barrister Asad-ul-Mulk before honorable court and argued that KP-PSRA Act bounds private school to obtain registration from the authority.

The official representatives of the BISE contended that since the Leeds Campus School and College was not registered with KP-PSRA they could not allow the students of such a school to sit in FSc 2nd year examination. Representing KP-PSRA, their council Barrister Asad-ul-Mulk pointing out the reason for the anomaly argued that the owners of the Leeds Campus School and College were engaged in fierce litigation between themselves, and had managed to procure conflicting orders from various Civil and District Courts which had hampered the process of registration resulting in the unfortunate situation that had transpired.

The divisional bench of the Peshawar High Court comprising of Justice Rooh-ul-Amin and Justice Attique Shah issuing their detail judgment have iterated that as per Section 21 and 22 of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Private School Regulatory Authority Act 2017 it is illegal to open or operate a school without registering the same with KP-PSRA and thus the statutory penalty of Rs. 200,000/- which was proposed by the KP-PSRA be imposed on the owners of the Leeds Campus School and College.

Deeming the statutory penalty insufficient in the case at hand, the High Court has directed the DPO Mardan to probe into the case to see whether criminal liability is also made out on part of the unregistered school’s owners, and if so, then to book them for the offence of fraud and cheating the public at large.

As for the petitioner students, the High Court has passed orders directing the Chairman of the BISE to arrange for a special exam for the students so that their studies do not suffer.