Delhi govt passes Bill to regulate private school fees: What it says — and why parents are concerned

Indian Express

a day ago

The Delhi Assembly passed the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Bill, 2025, last week to curb the increasing commercialisation of school education in the national capital.
The Bill, which Education Minister Ashish Sood tabled, was sent to Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena for his assent.
The move has come three months after Delhi saw widespread protests by parents over fee hikes by several private schools at the start of the academic session in April.
What does the Bill say?
The Bill seeks to ensure that all recognised and unrecognised private schools in Delhi are governed under a common structure of oversight regarding school fees. There will be a three-tier fee regulation framework, which includes the School Level Fee Regulation Committee, the District Fee Appellate Committee, and a Review Committee.
Under the first tier, every private school will be required to set up a School Level Fee Regulation Committee by July 15 of each year. This committee is to be chaired by a nominee of the school management and will include the school principal as the secretary. The membership includes five parents, who are drawn by lots from the Parent-Teacher Association, along with three teachers of the school and a nominee from the Director of Education, who acts as an observer to the committee. Of the members, one must hail from a SC/ST or socially and educationally backwards class of citizens, and at least two members should be women. The committee is required to meet at least once a year before 15 August and must unanimously approve the school's proposed fee for the upcoming academic year. Once approved, the fees can be revised after three years.
The second tier is the District Fee Appellate Committee, which is tasked with grievance redressal. The committee will be constituted in each district of Delhi and will oversee all schools within its jurisdiction. It is chaired by the deputy director of education (DoE) of the concerned district and includes the Zonal DoE as its member-secretary. Other members include a chartered accountant or district accounts officer, two representatives from the school, and two representing the parents.
A challenge to the fee prescribed by the School Level Fee Regulation Committee can only be initiated by filing a complaint by 15% of the parents from the affected school.
Once a case is taken up, the District Fee Appellate Committee can summon witnesses, seek documents, examine evidence, and even appoint commissions for witness examinations.
The third tier is the Revision Committee that is set up at the state level, comprising a chairperson who is 'an eminent person with valuable contributions in the field of education'. Its members include a chartered accountant, controller/deputy controller of accounts, a representative of schools, one representative of parents, and an additional DoE. The orders passed by the committee are binding for a three-year period, which aligns with the fixed duration of the approved fee structure.
What are the penalties under the Bill?
According to the Bill, a first-time violation may attract fines ranging between one lakh and five lakh rupees, and if the violation is repeated, the fine doubles, ranging between two lakh and 10 lakh rupees. Non-compliance also triggers a graded escalation. In cases of continued non-compliance, the DoE is empowered to suspend or withdraw a school's recognition, restrict its right to revise fees, or take over its management.
Coercive practices such as withholding exam results, striking off a student's name from the roll list, and denying participation in classroom activities are penalised under the Bill, attracting a Rs 50,000 fine per student.
However, there are concerns that schools may recover the cost of these fines through school fees, which may further impact the parents.
Why has the Bill been criticised?
The Bill has drawn widespread criticism from the parents. One of the key arguments is the lack of any retrospective application to the steep fee hikes imposed earlier this year. No provision addresses the rollback and reassessment of such increases.
Another issue is the composition of the regulatory committees. Parents argue that the School Level Fee Regulation Committee is dominated by school-appointed figures and parents selected by a lottery draw. This has raised concerns about the neutrality of the composition. At the district and state levels, the parent representation thins out even further, with no procedure outlined for the selection mechanism.
The 15% threshold for raising grievances marks a departure from earlier Delhi High Court-mandated mechanisms that allowed individual parents to lodge complaints.
In 1999, following a PIL over steep fee hikes, the court constituted the Justice Duggal Committee, which led to the creation of Fee Anomaly Committees in each district. These allowed individual grievances to be verified and examined by the DoE. The current Bill requires collective action, limiting individual access to redressal.