The Supreme Court has formed a committee to look into the financial situations of some private schools in Uttar Pradesh, which were directed to refund undue fees collected during the Covid pandemic. This was announced on Tuesday by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna.
The panel will be headed by former Delhi High Court judge GP Mittal and chartered accountant Adhish Mehra. They have been asked to review the financial position of each school independently and present a report.
The court recognized that several schools were severely affected financially during the pandemic, which led to a reduction in staff and teachers’ salaries, causing significant human resource losses.
The Supreme Court has underscored that any instructions demanding the refunding or rebatement of the excessive fees by the schools must be subject to a detailed audit of their accounts. The court has given four weeks’ time to carry out the evaluation.
Earlier in January 2023, the Allahabad High Court had ordered private schools to either reduce or refund the additional fees collected during the pandemic. The decision was challenged by the schools, and they went on to appeal to the Supreme Court, which suspended the high court order in May 2023.
At the earlier hearings, the Supreme Court had ordered certain schools to provide affidavits along with their balance sheets and profit and loss accounts for the respective periods.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court criticized the generic approach adopted by the High Court and reaffirmed the need for each case to be dealt with separately. The interim order staying the High Court’s directive would continue to apply while the committee makes its review. Senior lawyer Hufeza Ahmadi appeared on behalf of a number of private schools during the hearings.
