Private schools told to collect fees as per SC order

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Friday directed private schools to collect tuition fees as per the Supreme Court’s order.

A bench of the LHC summoned a report from the Punjab education secretary and the chief executive officer of the district education authority to submit their reports on fees being collected by private educational institutes on Oct 14.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by the Judicial Activism Panel against private schools receiving excessive fees.

The petitioner pleaded with the bench to restrain schools from collecting exorbitant fees in violation of the SC order.

In its judgment last week, the SC had ruled that private schools would charge the same fees as in January 2017.

A day earlier, the LHC had directed the Punjab government to furnish a report showing action it has thus far taken against private schools collecting excessive tuition fees in violation of the Supreme Court order.

Justice Shahid Waheed of the LHC was hearing a petition filed by a student, Ihtesham Sarwar who took a private school to the court over raising tuition fees excessively.

The judge directed the provincial authorities to submit details as to how many private schools had been fined for charging excessive fees.

Over the course of the hearing, he took exception to the government imposing a fine of Rs20,000 on a private school, saying it was fined a mere Rs20,000 for collecting double fees.

The petitioner complained that the Supreme Court had barred private schools from collecting excessive fees yet some of them have raised tuition fees in violation of its orders.