Cuttack: The Orissa High Court on Monday adjourned the hearing of the cases regarding the collection of fees by private schools in the state during the ongoing closure of the educational institutions for COVID-19 epidemic to after Durga puja vacations.
Adjudicating over at least three pending cases in this connection, the High Court on the day directed the School and Mass Education department to clarify the stand of the state government in this regard within seven days and posted the cases to be taken up later.
The state government last month had submitted a report of the joint committee in the High Court stating that the school authorities and parents’ association have signed an MoU suggesting for a slashing of school fees in different slabs.
But as the cases came up for hearing on the day, some school authorities, who had signed in the last month’s MoU, expressed their displeasure through intervening petitions over the government proposal of slashing the school fees under different slabs.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice B R Sarangi, however, dismissed the intervening petitions filed by the disgruntled private schools’ authorities.