HC Slams DPS Dwarka Over ‘Harassment’ Of Its Students

New Delhi: Delhi High Court criticised Delhi Public School, Dwarka, on Wednesday for subjecting students who failed to pay hiked school fees to "indignity and harassment" and ordered the institution to let them resume normal study."This court is unable to countenance such conduct," justice Sachin Datta said after examining a govt inspection report which "reveals a very disturbing state of affairs". The court noted that the school was subjecting students "who are of tender age, to considerable indignity and harassment". They were confined to the library, barred from attending classes and segregated from other students.Justice Datta said the school, which was treating students like "chattel", deserved to be shut down. The court said safeguards were required to ensure students weren't "tortured" by the school and criticised it for running the institution merely as a "money-making machine".Restraining the school from discriminatory action against these students, the court said nonpayment/deficit payment of fees could not "serve as justification" for ‘harassment" or subject them to discrimination "as a device to recover fees".At the hearing of a petition filed on behalf of the students on Wednesday, several students appeared in court in their school uniforms along with books and bags. Their parents were also present. "I am concerned that you treated the students in a shabby and inhuman way... Inability to pay fees does not give the school the licence to treat students with such indignity," justice Datta said, taking note of the submissions of counsel for the affected parents.The court relied on the inspection report of an eight-member inspection committee led by the district magistrate (southwest) that flagged several discriminatory practices against students amid the fee hike row. Parents of such students claimed the school authorities harassed their children due to non-payment of the "unauthorised fee" and maintained that it was hiked without valid reason and unilaterally."One should criminally prosecute the principal of the school for this behaviour," an irked court remarked, expressing severe displeasure at the actions of the school. While the counsel for the students claimed that they were willing to pay the approved fee amount, the school's lawyer contended that till March the students had failed to clear their dues despite a show-cause notice sent to all defaulting students in Dec 2024. It was only then that the school management asked the students not to come to the school.Meanwhile, the counsel for Delhi govt's Directorate of Education submitted that it too had issued a show-cause notice to the school on April 8, asking the management to explain within seven days why action of derecognition should not be taken against it for hiking fees.The court said the school is to allocate sections to students who have been promoted to the next class and any controversy over fees will be resolved in the manner laid out in rules and laws. It also ordered DoE and the district magistrate concerned to "conduct regular inspections" to ensure the court's directions were complied with.