New Delhi: Ramey Krishan Rana a law student has moved for a Public interest litigation (PIL) in the Delhi High Court through advocate Kush Sharma, seeking direction to the Central Government and others to issue detailed guidelines directing universities and university-like institutions to charge only tuition fees and grant concessions to parents on a case-to-case basis in the form of extension of the time to deposit fees or payment on an installment basis.
The PIL was submitted to the court on Wednesday and after this, the division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan directed the concern respondents to treat the petition as representation according to the rules, law, and government policies. The bench said “concession is not a right at all. The petition is related to the students else I would have dismissed it.”
The petition sought directions to universities or institutions to refrain from increasing their fee and ensure access to online education/material/ classes to all students by providing gadgets and 4G data-packs or provide students with printed study material, pen drives of lectures, or infrastructure within premises for attending online classes., without any discrimination, even to students who are unable to pay the school fee due to financial crisis arising out of the ongoing conditions.
“In addition to the shrinkage of GDP as per the latest reports, people employed across sectors have suffered a loss of jobs as well as reduction of salaries. Consequently, household income across all income groups has reduced considerably and people are facing a severe cash crunch and financial burden,” the plea said.
“Owing to these circumstances, the parents of students pursuing Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses are finding it exceedingly difficult to pay the fees of their wards. This situation is more alarming in the case of parents of those students who are pursuing their education in educational institutions which are set up under private universities and deemed universities which charge a fee at a huge premium,” it added.