Hyderabad : Making it clear that it is the bounden duty of the state to ensure that private schools in the state do not indulge in profiteering business in the name of imparting education, the AP High Court on Aug 27 upheld the power of the state government to regulate fee structure in schools.

The division Bench comprising Justice Goda Raghuram and Justice Naushad Ali while delivering its judgment in a batch of writ petitions held that private schools will henceforth fall under the purview of the Capitation Fee Act. However, the Bench said that such regulations have to be effective and held that the method of regulating school fee structures through district-level fee regulating committees was illegal.

While interpreting and upholding many provisions of GO 91, the Bench held three provisions as illegal. It may be recalled that after many agitations by parents and civil society groups, the government had issued GO 91 on August 6, 2009, making provision for the regulation of fee in private schools. Several writ petitions were filed by managements of several educational institutions, challenging the constitutional validity of the GO, claiming that they were affiliated to Central Board of School Education (CBSE) and that the state government had no power to regulate them. In their challenge, the schools contended that the GO was against various Supreme Court verdicts.

In its 114-page verdict delivered by Justice Raghu Ram, the Bench made it clear that the CBSE bylaws do not exclude the power of the state government in regulating fee structure. "The GO is not inconsistent with the CBSE rules. The Act prohibiting capitation fee is not limited to professional institutions but is also applicable to schools," it said. The Bench also reminded that the GO could be treated as a notification issued under the Act which prohibits capitation fee.