After uproar and protests over arbitrary fee hikes by private schools, the Delhi cabinet led by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta has approved an ordinance to regulate fees charged by schools and bring in greater transparency. The cabinet cleared the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Ordinance, 2025 in its eight meeting on Tuesday. The draft Ordinance have provisions of strict penalties for schools involved in hiking fees arbitrarily, including losing the right to propose fee revisions. The move is expected to benefit students and parents across 1,677 private schools in Delhi.
The ordinance proposes the formation of school-level fee regulation committees, district-level appellate bodies, and a state-level revision committee to manage disputes and appeals - a first-of-its-kind three-tier mechanism in Delhi. After the cabinet approval, the ordinance will be sent to Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena. The ordinance, once enacted, will restrain private schools from arbitrarily increasing fees and offer much needed relief to parents.
The BJP-led government had initially planned to introduce this reform in the second part of the Delhi Assembly’s budget session, which was supposed to be held on May 13-14 but was deferred.
The draft ordinance states that if a school is found charging fees that exceed the permitted norms, it must roll back the excess amount and refund it within 20 working days. For a first offence, the school will be fined between `1 lakh and `5 lakh. For repeat offences, the penalty will increase to anywhere between `2 lakh and `10 lakh. The draft ordinance proposes that if the school fails to refund the amount within the stipulated time, the fine will double after 20 days, triple after 40 days, and continue to increase with every 20-day delay. It also has provisions for penalties on those who indulge in repeated violations.
Addressing a press conference, Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood said that in the eighth cabinet meeting, the BJP government approved the ordinance based on the proposed Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Bill, 2025. “The ordinance will be sent for presidential assent through the Lt Governor. This is a day of happiness for parents whose children study in private schools. It will take the form of a law,” Sood said. “This retrospective provision will especially benefit those parents who were pressured into paying exorbitant and unjustified fees,” he said.
The ordinance prohibits schools from penalising students for non-payment of fees, including removing them from rolls, withholding exam results, or publicly humiliating them.
According to the Ordinance, those found repeatedly flouting norms may also be barred from holding official posts within the school management, according to the draft ordinance. Additionally, the school management could lose the right to propose fee revisions in the future.
The Ordinance will make the process of fee fixation in private schools transparent and accountable. Before increasing the fees, schools will have to take permission under the prescribed procedure and rules made by the government. Also, this will crack down on those schools which charge fees arbitrarily or discriminate against students.
The ordinance lays out a structured framework for overseeing how private schools fix their fees and addresses long-standing complaints from parents about arbitrary hikes and lack of clarity in fee structures.
The draft ordinance says it aims to strike a balance between preserving the autonomy of private institutions and safeguarding the rights of parents, ensuring that quality education remains both accessible and fairly priced. The draft ordinance proposes the constitution of three committees to oversee the fee regulation process — one each at the school, district, and revision levels.
The highest authority, the ‘Revision Committee’, will have the final say on any disputes or decisions related to school fees. This committee will be headed by the Director of Education, an eminent educationist, a chartered accountant, the Controller of Accounts, representatives from schools and parents, and a former education official. Its decisions will be binding on all parties for a period of three years. The ‘District Committee’ will be chaired by the District Director of Education. Other members will include the Deputy Director of Education of the zone, two school principals nominated by the Directorate of Education (DoE) and two parents’ representatives also nominated by the DoE.
This committee will be responsible for resolving disputes between school management and the School Level Fee Regulation Committees. Every private unaided school including those offering Indian and foreign curricula, as well as minority institutions or those allocated land at concessional rates will be required to establish a ‘School Level Fee Regulation Committee’ each academic year by July 15, according to the draft ordinance.
This committee will be chaired by a school management representative, with the Principal serving as Secretary. Other members will include three teachers, five parents (chosen by a draw of lots), and one nominee from the DoE. The ordinance also specifies that the committee must include at least one member from the SC/ST/OBC categories and at least two women. Its tenure will last one academic year.
Appeals regarding fee-related decisions can first be taken to the District Committee. Furthermore, any aggrieved party including parents, school management, or the School Level Committee can escalate the matter to the Revision Committee, which the government will officially notify.
According to the draft ordinance, the list of committee members must be displayed within seven working days of formation. The committee is required to conduct a general meeting before August 15 and carry out its functions as per the Act. Parents cannot serve on the committee for more than two consecutive years, and a two-year gap is mandatory before being eligible for nomination again, it mentioned.
The draft ordinance also grants schools the autonomy to propose fees but within a set framework. For the academic year 2025-26, the fees already charged from April 1, 2025, will be treated as the proposed fees. However, as per the draft ordinance, any school whose recognition has been suspended, or which has been found guilty of violating the Act or penalised twice in succession under Section 14, will not be allowed to propose any fee hikes.
