DoE withdraws order derecognising school after plea in Delhi HC

New Delhi: The Delhi government's Department of Education has now withdrawn an order dropping the recognition for Bal Bharti Public School in Pitampura, after the school in question approached the Delhi High Court, a bench of which then issued directions setting down the procedure for such action.

While derecognising the school, the Delhi government had cited an "illegal" increase in fees for 2018-19 and 2019-20 — without the DoE's permission.

The government order had directed that the school would be barred from taking new admissions from the 2022-23 academic session, adding that the school could continue till the end of this academic year.

The DoE went on to say that following this, the students of this school would be moved to private schools nearby run by the Child Education Society or schools run by the Delhi government in the area.

While challenging the government action against it, the school had gone to the Delhi High Court against two orders — one that derecognised it and another rejecting the statement of fees for the session 2019-20.

And even as the Delhi government insisted that there were serious errors and discrepancies in the fee proposal for the session — found by a team of government-appointment chartered accountants, the school has said that they were neither provided with a copy of the report and nor were they given a chance to be heard.

Justice Prateek Jalan of the Delhi High Court had during the hearing noted that the DoE was "agreeable to withdraw the impugned orders" in this case and also agreeable to hearing the school out. The court has now disposed of the petition, directing the directorate to supply a supplementary statement to the school in the next 15 days if it thought there were any other issues to be raised with respect to the 2019-20 fee statement.

"The DoE will also supply the materials relied upon, including the report of the chartered accountants, to enable the school to respond to the alleged discrepancies identified against it," the court order read.

The school must be given three weeks to respond to the allegations and file any documents to support its contentions, the high court noted, adding that the government must hear the school out before issuing any other orders on the 2019-20 fee structure.

And even after this, if the Delhi government wants to proceed with taking action against the concerned school, it must make sure that it first issues a show-cause notice to the school and grants a personal hearing to the authorities.