SHC reserves judgment on plea against excessive tuition fee hike

The Sindh High Court (SHC) reserved its judgment on Monday on petitions challenging excessive tuition fee increases in private schools after partially hearing the arguments of a school management’s counsel.

The court was hearing the petitions filed by parents and the management of a school with regard to statutory provisions for increasing tuition fees. School management counsel Farogh Naseem submitted that the restriction on increasing tuition fees up to five per cent was contrary to the law as private schools had to suffer losses due to such limitations, which also affected quality education. He said every private school had a different education system and no guidelines were provided in the rules to determine the fees.

The provincial law officer submitted the gazette notification with regard to increases in tuition fees in the private educational institutions, according to which private schools/education institutions could not increase tuition fees by more than five percent per annum. 

After taking the gazette notification on record, the court reserved its judgment.  In October last year, parents and students had won a legal battle against a private school management’s decision to increase tuition fees up to 14 percent, and court had observed that schools shall only increase tuition fees not more than five percent per annum from the date of their registration for three years.

However, the Supreme Court had set aside the judgment and remanded back the petitions to the SHC for hearing afresh an appeal of the school management, which submitted that implications, vires and application of Rule 7 (3) of the Sindh Private Education Institutions (Regulation and Control) Rules 2005, were not examined in the judgment. 

The Supreme Court had directed the high court to hear the petition afresh prior to the summer vacations and in the meantime ordered the schools not to expel any student or take any action against the students over the non-payment of the enhanced school fees.

MQM-H meeting 

The Sindh High Court directed the home department and others to file comments on a petition of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi seeking permission for holding a public meeting.

The MQM-H submitted in the petition that the authorities concerned were not granting permission to it to hold a public gathering in Landhi though other political parties were being allowed to hold public gatherings in the city.  It further stated that police and other authorities had been asking it to postpone the meeting due to security threats. 

The petitioner’s counsel said every political party had the right to hold public gatherings and carrying out political activities. He argued that the denial of such political activities would amount to the violation of the law and the constitution. 

He requested the court to direct the authorities to grant permission to the petitioner for holding a public gathering in Korangi.  Korangi police filed comments submitting that public meetings were not being allowed in their town due to a law and order situation as three police personnel had been martyred in a terror attack. Besides, they said, the petitioner did not honour its undertaking with regard to the inauguration of its party’s headquarters, Baitul Hamza.  The court directed the home department and others to file comments and adjourned the hearing till September 6.