Cuttack: The Orissa High Court on Sunday pronounced its verdict on school fee waiver case in Odisha. The bench of the High Court comprising of Chief Justice S. Muralidhar accepted the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) of the Odisha government.
It is worthwhile to mention here that the State government had signed the MoU with 14 schools and parents’ associations on September 10, 2020. The agreement was inked following the direction of the High Court.
The court, however, said that those schools who are aggrieved or have a different point of view can seek appropriate reliefs in separate proceedings as permissible to them in accordance with the law.
Apart from pronouncing the judgment, the apex court of the State disposed all the writ petitions and pending applications and said that a separate proceeding on enforcement of terms and conditions of recognition or grant of NOC as mentioned in 1996 Resolution.
Fee Waiver: High Court has recorded the fact of the MoU has been entered into but those who are aggrived or different point of view can seek appropriate reliefs in separate proceedings as permissible 2 them in accordance with law. Writ petitions & pending applications disposed of pic.twitter.com/eYU8Wyysrv
— Soumyajit Pattnaik (@soumyajitt) January 10, 2021
The parents’ body had knocked on the door of the court seeking exemption of students of private schools from paying school fees because of Covid-induced distress. While hearing the case on September 1, the court had asked for mediation of the dispute and directed representatives from Confederation of Odisha Public Schools, representatives of the three PIL petitioners to participate in the process to be convened by the secretary of the school and mass education department.
Later, the High Court conducted a hearing on January 7 and had reserved its judgment on school fee row.
Ms Kalinga