In Brief
Private schools challenged Rajasthan's fee regulation law and pandemic-related fee reduction orders. The Supreme Court upheld the fee regulation law as constitutional, finding the right to determine fees is not absolute and reasonable external regulation preventing profiteering is permissible. However, it quashed the government's order reducing fees by 70%, finding no legal authority for such unilateral modification of fees already fixed under law. As a one-time measure balancing competing interests, the Court directed schools to collect 85% of fees fixed for 2019-20 during 2020-21, with six monthly instalments, while allowing further discretionary concessions and preventing student debarment for non-payment.
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