Case Note & Summary
The petitioner, T.S.T Rajah Girls Matriculation Higher Secondary School, a self-financing institution established in 1988 with a student strength of 1652 for the academic year 2023-2024, filed a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. The school challenged the orders passed by the Fee Committee on 11.11.2022 and 04.08.2023 by which the committee had fixed the fee to be collected from students for the academic years 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25. The petitioner contended that the fee was not properly fixed as per its request submitted on 08.12.2021 and sought a writ of certiorarified mandamus to quash the impugned orders and direct the Fee Committee to reconsider and refix the fee in accordance with the principles laid down in the Division Bench judgment of the Madras High Court in W.P.No.38383 of 2015 batch dated 25.01.2018 and the judgment reported as Lakshmi Matriculation School case, 2012 Writ L.R. 489. The matter was heard by a Division Bench comprising Justices S.M. Subramaniam and K. Rajasekar. During the hearing, it was undisputed that the three-year period for which the fee had been fixed had already expired and that the Fee Committee was then in the process of considering the issues for fixation of fee for the forthcoming academic year 2025-26. The court observed that the grounds raised in the writ petition had consequently lost their relevance, as the period covered by the impugned orders had elapsed. In light of this, the court held that no further adjudication on the merits of the challenge was required. The court, however, granted liberty to the petitioner school to raise all the grounds that were urged in the present writ petition in the context of the fee fixation for the next three years commencing from the academic year 2025-26. With this direction, the writ petition was disposed of, and no order as to costs was made. The judgment makes clear that when the purpose for which a fee fixation order was challenged ceases to be operative due to efflux of time, the petition becomes infructuous and the court will not undertake an academic exercise to decide the legality of the expired order, but may safeguard the petitioner’s right to raise similar objections in fresh proceedings.
Headnote
A) Education Law - Fee Fixation by Committee - Expiry of Fixed Period - Constitution of India, Article 226 - The petitioner school challenged fee fixation orders for the academic years 2022-2025; the court observed that the three-year period had already expired and the Fee Committee was considering fees for the subsequent academic year 2025-26, rendering the grounds raised in the petition infructuous. Held, no further adjudication was necessary, and the petition was disposed of with liberty to the school to raise all grounds in the upcoming fee fixation proceedings for 2025-26 (Paras 1-4).
Issue of Consideration
Whether the orders of the Fee Committee dated 11.11.2022 and 04.08.2023 fixing fee for academic years 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 should be quashed, and whether the court should direct reconsideration of the fee in terms of earlier Division Bench judgments.
Final Decision
The writ petition was disposed of as infructuous because the three-year fee period had expired. No further adjudication on merits was undertaken. The petitioner was granted liberty to raise all the grounds in the present petition in the fee fixation proceedings for the next three years commencing from the academic year 2025-26. No costs were awarded.
Law Points
- Legal points not extracted
- fee fixation by committee under Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act
- 2009
- writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of Constitution of India
- expiry of fee fixation period renders writ petition infructuous
- liberty to raise grounds in future fee fixation proceedings
