Fee hike: DFRC imposes a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Apeejay School

A fine of Rs 1 lakh has been imposed on Apeejay School in Noida by the District Fee Regulation Committee (DFRC) on Tuesday (19th February) after the school increased its fee abruptly in the mid-session.

The action has been taken against the school after students’ parents filed the complaint against the Apeejay School in Noida’s Sector 16A for increasing its fee.

However, the school has been asked to refund the excess fees, officials said.

The DFRC came into action days after it had sought an explanation from the school in the wake of a complaint filed by the All Noida School Parents’ Association (ANSPA) last month about hiking the quarterly fees by nearly Rs 5,000.

However, increasing school fees abruptly is considered as a violation of the UP Self-Financed Independent Schools (Fee Regulation) Act, 2018”.

Even parents and guardians took the issue about unnecessary fee hike by the school on the micro-blogging site as well.

As per District Magistrate BN Singh, also the Chairperson of the DFRC told TOI that Apeejay School has imposed the fee hike without taking any sort of permission from the fee regulation committee. Therefore, considering it as a violation of the act, they have imposed the fine of Rs 1 lakh on the school so that other schools of Noida also learn the example from this.

Also, the school has been asked to refund the excess fees to all parents. ‘We have advised a review of the existing fee structure of the school to see if it matches with the norms of the UP fee regulation act. If it doesn’t, then an entire revision of the school’s fee structure will be advised,’ said district inspector of schools PK Upadhyay.

However, this is not the first time when the fee hike complaint against Apeejay school come to light, last year also, parents had protested against the school for increasing the fee.