Discriminatory fees: Parents win round 1

A Borivali school has been ordered to accept 20 students to whom it had earlier issued leaving certificates due to a conflict arising over the school's fee structure.

The JBCN School had earlier cancelled the admissions of 20 students after their parents protested the school's fee structure, which they claimed was discriminatory. In a writ petition filed in the Bombay High Court on May 5, the parents claimed that the school was charging lower fees to certain students who were among the early students to have taken admission to the school. These students, apparently termed 'pioneer students' pay comparatively lower fees than 'non-pioneer students', the parents claimed even though both the sets of students used the same facilities in the same classroom.

In an interim relief, the court passed an order on May 7, asking the school to take back all the 20 students whose admissions it had cancelled. The court directed the parents not to pay the next academic year's fees for now but instead gave them two weeks' time to deposit fees for two quarters with the court. The next hearing is on June 9. The school management did not comment since the matter is sub-judice.