Schools bound to give 20pc fee concession as SHC vacates stay order

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday vacated its interim stay order against the provincial education department’s directives to private educational institutions for mandatory 20 per cent concession in the tuition fees of April and May in view of the current lockdown following the promulgation of the COVID-19 emergency relief ordinance that bound these institutions to not charge more than 80 per cent of the total monthly fees.

The court on May 5 had suspended the implementation of the education department’s directives to private educational institutions for the mandatory concession as these institutions had challenged the Sindh government’s newly introduced amendments in the rules relating to private educational institutions.

These institutions had impugned the provincial government’s notification about the newly introduced amendments, whereby Rule 19-A to Rule 19-E were inserted after Rule 19 of the Sindh Private Educational Institutions (Regulations & Control) Rules 2005, and the subsequent notification issued by the education department directing these institutions to provide 20 per cent tuition fee concession to students.

Sindh Advocate General Salman Talibuddin filed a statement along with the copy of the Sindh COVID-19 Emergency Relief Ordinance 2020, which binds the educational institutions to not charge more than 80 per cent of the total monthly fees.

He said the ordinance has superseded the education department’s special order issued on April 28 to private educational institutions with regard to the 20 per cent fee concession order to these institutions.

The petitioners’ counsel said that since the other clauses of the impugned special order as well as the newly inserted rules 19-A to 19-E have also been challenged, the petition should be heard in respect thereof.

The SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar observed that the interim stay order passed earlier need not be extended, as clauses (ii), (iii) and (iv) of the impugned special order issued on April 28 have now lost the field in view of the promulgation of the COVID-19 ordinance.

Vacating the interim stay order, the court adjourned the hearing of the petition for a date to be fixed by the office. The court also directed the counsel of the petitioner, who sought enforcement of the government’s amendments in the rules, to satisfy the court on the maintainability of the petition, as the petitioner’s prayer to declare the amendments intra vires the constitution was premature, and the amendments were still in the field.

The court observed that the other prayer has become infructuous, as the education department’s directives of April 28 have now been superseded by the COVID-19 relief ordinance.

The Sindh government had on April 27 made certain amendments in the private educational institutions rules by inserting rules 19-A to 19-E in place of the original Rule 19, giving powers to the registration authority defined under the said rules.

The education department’s private educational institutions registration authority, by exercising its powers under Rule 19-A, had issued a special order on April 28 about 20 per cent mandatory concession in the fee of students for the months of April and May 2020.