The Delhi Public School (DPS) Society has approached the Delhi High Court seeking a stay on a recent government notification, describing the mandate to constitute school-level fee regulation committees within 10 days as a “mammoth exercise” that cannot be concluded before the upcoming academic session.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia heard a cluster of petitions on Thursday filed by various school associations. These petitions challenge a February 1 notification issued by the Delhi government, which requires private schools to establish a School Level Fee Regulation Committee (SLFRC) within a strict 10-day window.
The legal friction arises from the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Act. Under the new rules, schools are prohibited from collecting fees for the academic session starting April 1, 2026, until those fees are approved by the SLFRC.
The Delhi government maintains that the rapid implementation is necessary to prevent “profiteering” and ensure regulated fees for the 2026-27 block. However, schools argue that the procedural requirements of the Act make the 10-day deadline physically and administratively impossible to meet.
Senior Counsel Puneet Mittal, representing the DPS Society, argued that the selection process for the committee is far from simple. According to the Act, the committee must include five parents selected through a public draw of lots on school premises following due notice.
“25,000 students in Delhi is what we have… So it’s a mammoth exercise. It is not an exercise at the click of a button,” Mittal contended. He emphasized that the process requires significant resources and cannot be “rushed.”
Beyond the logistics of the draw, Mittal highlighted a significant data gap regarding the mandatory inclusion of a member from Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), or socially and educationally backward classes.
“In school, from elementary education to higher secondary education, there is not even a question asked at any stage on which religion or caste you belong to. We have admission in Delhi only on a point-based system,” he explained, adding that the schools do not currently maintain such records.
The Directorate of Education (DoE) defended the February 1 gazette notification, stating it was intended to “smoothen” the implementation of the Act following queries raised by the Supreme Court. The government argued that delaying the implementation would defeat the very object of the law, which is to regulate fees right from the start of the new academic year.
Conversely, the Action Committee Unaided Recognised Private Schools—an umbrella body for private institutions—maintained that the notification is legally unsustainable because it unilaterally changes the timelines prescribed in the original Act.
The High Court has scheduled the next hearing for February 27. Until a decision is reached, the schools remain under pressure to meet the requirements of the notification, which also stipulates that school managements must submit proposed fee structures for the next three-year block within 14 days of forming their respective committees.
