The Delhi government Wednesday decided to issue a show-cause notice for taking over the management of a prominent private school in the city, Apeejay School Sheikh Sarai, alleging fee hike issues. As per government representatives, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Wednesday approved a proposal by the Directorate of Education to take over the school management, and that decision has been forwarded to the office of Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal. Last year, the government had passed orders to seal two branches of the Apeejay Schools franchise, including the one in Sheikh Sarai, over unauthorised fee collection, which had been stayed by the Delhi High Court.

Subsequently, it had sought to lodge FIRs against the schools’ management citing violation of directions regarding fee collection during the pandemic. The schools maintain they have all requisite approvals from the Directorate of Education for the fees they charged. In a statement Wednesday, the school said it is “shocked at the prejudicial and incorrect statements made by the Delhi government”

“The Directorate of Education had conducted an inspection of the financial statement of the school for fiscal years 2012-2013 to 2018-2019; after a detailed inspection of records, the department found that total funds for the year 2018-2019 amounted to Rs 49,72,45,586 of which the expenditure was estimated to be Rs 18,87,02,422, implying that there was a net surplus of Rs. 30,85,43,164, upon which the department concluded that the school had no actual need to increase the fees of the school,” read the government statement. “The directorate refused to accept the proposed fee structure of the school for academic session 2018-2019 and 2019-2020.

The directorate then issued notices to the school, asking them why the recognition of the school should not be cancelled or why the government should not take over the management of the school. The directorate issued several notices, asking them to stop charging the increased fee and submit a reply, which the school did not. The school had approached the High Court against the directorate’s order. However, the High Court endorsed the Directorate of Education’s order asking the school to roll back the increased fees,” it added.

News Source : Nyoooz