TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2017 (7) TMI 1459
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....eard Shri Samdhani, learned Senior counsel and Shri Arvind G. Kothari, learned counsel for the Petitioners. Mr. C.P. Yadav for Respondent - State in Writ Petition No. 7594 of 2017 and Mr. Abhay Patki, AGP for State - Respondents Nos. 1, 3 and 4. 5. Shri Samdhani learned senior counsel submits that under the provisions of the said Act, it is only the management who is entitled to approach the DFRC. It is submitted that individual parents have no locus to file proceedings under the provisions of the said Act. Shri Samdhani learned senior counsel submits that the DFRC is the tribunal constituted under the provisions of said Act. It is submitted that a tribunal of a limited jurisdiction constituted under the provisions of a statute can exercise the powers only within the parameters as laid down by the statute. It is submitted that the tribunal cannot assume jurisdiction, which is not vested in it under the provisions of the statute. Shri Samdhani, therefore, submits that the impugned order which is passed by the DFRC in a proceeding initiated at the instance of the individual parents is not sustainable in law and the orders passed therein are liable to be quashed and set aside. Shri....
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....same would not be necessary in the present matter, since we propose to decide the matter on the basis of scheme as provided in the said enactment. It further appears that under the rule making powers provided under the said Act, the State of Maharashtra has framed the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Regulation of Fee) Rules 2016, (hereinafter referred as to "Rules"). It appears that some of the parents had made complaint to Respondent No. 3, Deputy Director of Education with regard to increase of fees by the Petitioner - management. The Respondent No. 3 - Deputy Director of Education vide letter dated 2nd June 2016 informed the Petitioners that upon inquiry into allegations made regarding increase in fees, allegations were found to be without substance. 11. However, it appears that subsequently, the Respondent No. 1 on the basis of the complaints made by the Respondent Nos. 4 & 5 issued a notice to the Petitioners on 5th May 2017, vide which the complainants as well as the present Petitioners were directed to remain present for the hearing on 16th May 2017. Both the parties were also directed to produce relevant documents before the committee. It appears that thereafter th....
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....hers Association; (k) "fee" means the amount, fixed as a fee under sections 5 and 6 and includes,- (i) Tuition fee; (ii) Term fee, which shall not exceed one month tuition fee per term; (iii) Library fee and deposit; (iv) Laboratory fee and deposit; (v) Gymkhana fee; (vi) Caution money; (vii) Examination fee; (viii) Hostel fee and Mess charges; (ix) Admission fee; Explanation - Where the student is admitted into the school having the facility to undertake education upto the tenth standard or any standard below it, the student shall not be required to pay the admission fee once again; (x) deposit as security amount or amount payable for any curricular or co-curricular item as may be prescribed; Sections 3, 4 & 6 read thus:- Section 3 No school itself or on its behalf shall collect any fee in excess of the fee fixed or approved under this Act. Section 4(1)(a) Every private school shall constitute the Parent-Teachers Association. (b) The Parent-Teachers Association shall be formed by the head of the school within thirty days from the ....
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....eeting of the Parent-Teachers Association shall be such as may be prescribed. The Parent-Teachers Association shall discharge such duties and perform such functions as may be assigned to it under this Act and as may be prescribed. Section 6(1) The management of the private un-aided schools and permanently un-aided schools shall be competent to propose the fees in such schools. (2) On the formation of the Executive Committee, the management of the school shall submit the details of the proposed fee along with the relevant record to the Executive Committee for its approval at least six months before the commencement of the next academic year. While giving the approval, the Executive Committee shall have the authority to decide the amount of fee afresh. (3) After considering all the relevant factors laid down under section 9, the Executive Committee shall approve the fees within a period of thirty days from the date of receipt of the details of the proposed fee and the record under sub-section (2) and communicate the details of the fee so approved in writing to the management forthwith. The details of the fee so approved by the Executive Committee shall be d....
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....ch student. (d) The decision of the Divisional Fee Regulatory Committee in appeal or reference shall be displayed on the notice board of the concerned school, and if such school has its own website, it shall be displayed on the same by the management. 7. (1) The Government shall, by notification in the Official Gazette, constitute a Divisional Fee Regulatory Committee for each Educational Division. (2) The Divisional Fee Regulatory Committee shall consist of the following members, namely (3) Every appointment of a member under clauses (c) and (d) of sub-section (2) shall be made by the State Government on the recommendation of the Selection Committee. (4) The State Government shall constitute a Selection Committee for the Divisional Fee Regulatory Committee consisting of the following namely:- Provided that, where the Chairperson of the Revision Committee is, by reason of absence or otherwise, unable to act as a Chairperson of the Selection Committee, the Chairperson acting as such under the proviso to sub-section (2) of Section 11 shall act as a Chairperson. Sections 9 & 10 of the said Act read thus:- Section ....
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....f the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 relating to search and seizures shall apply, so far as may be, to searches and seizures under this section. (3) The Divisional Fee Regulatory Committee shall regulate its own procedure, for the discharge of its functions, and shall, for the purpose of making any inquiry under this Act, have all powers of a civil Court under the code of Civil Procedure, 1908 while trying a suit, in respect of the following matters, namely:- (i) the summoning and enforcing the attendance of any witness and examining him on oath; (ii) the discovery and production of any document; (iii) the reception of evidence of affidavits; (iv) the issue of commission for examination of the witness. (4) No judicial order shall be passed by the Divisional Fee Regulatory Committee in the absence of the Chairperson. The order of the Divisional Fee Regulatory Committees shall be binding on the parties to the proceedings before it for two academic years. It shall not be called in question in any civil Court except by way of an appeal before the Revision Committee constituted under this Act. (5) At the time of resolving ....
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....es to be charged for the purpose of being a member of Association. Sub-Section 2 provides constitution of Executive committee. A perusal of clause (a) of Section 2 would reveal that constitution of the Committee is in such a manner that numerically, it shall have one more member representing the parents. For example, if the Committee consists of 21 members, it will have 10 members, who are from HM and teachers category whereas it will have 11 members who are the representatives of parents. Clause (b) of Section 4 provides that out of total number of Executive Committee, there shall be at least one member from the Scheduled Caste, the Scheduled Tribes or Backward Class citizens to be rotated in the manner prescribed and at least fifty per cent of the members shall be women. The list of members of the Executive Committee shall be displayed on the notice board within a period of fifteen days from formation of the Executive Committee of the Parent Teachers Association. The term of the Executive Committee of the Parent Teachers Association shall be for one academic year. Clause (f) requires that the Parent - Teachers Association shall have a general meeting at least once before the 15th....
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.... days form the date of said communication under Sub-Section (3). Proviso to sub-section (5) enables the DFRC to entertain such an appeal even beyond period of limitation if it is satisfied that there are sufficient reasons for not preferring an appeal or reference within time. 17. Sub-Section (6) requires that the DFRC shall decide the appeal as far as possible within a period of 90 days from the date of its filing after giving the opportunity of being heard to the opposite party. Sub-Section (b) prohibits DFRC from granting any stay to the fees proposed by the management or fees approved by the Executive Committee. Sub-Section (c) empowers the DFRC to pass appropriate orders of refund of the excess fee to the student concerned. DFRC also empowers to recover such excess fee from the management as arrears of land revenue and pay the same to such student. 18. Sub-section (d) provides that decision of DFRC in appeal or reference shall be displayed on the notice board of the concerned school, and on its website if such school has its own website. 19. Section 7 enable the management or Executive Committee which is aggrieved by decision of the DFRC to prefer a further appeal bef....
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....) of Section 10 makes a similar provision as is already contained in clause (b) of Sub-Section (6) of Section 6 which prohibits Divisional Committee to grant any interim stay to the fee determined by the school management. It also provides for refund of fees recovered in excess, as is provided in Clause (c) Section (6). Sub-Section 8 of Section 10 provides that orders by the DFRC shall be binding on the private school for two academic years. It further provides that at the end of the said period the private schools are at liberty to propose changes in its fee structure by following the procedure as laid down under the Act. Chapter 4 of the said Act deals with offences and penalties. Section 17 provides as to what shall be the offences. Rule 9 of the said Rules deals with the procedure to prefer a proposal to DFRC under Section 6 of the Act. The provisions herein are almost similar with what has been provided in Section 6 of the said Act. 22. It could thus be seen that, the said Act is complete code in itself. It provides as to in what manner the fees will be first determined by the management and thereafter approved by the Executive Committee, which has to be constituted as per ....
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....bove. 53. Nazir Ahmed has been followed in dozens of decisions rendered by this Court and by other constitutional Courts in the country. The Central Vigilance Commission has accepted this principle in a modified form as a guiding principle in its circular dated 31st December, 2007 wherein it is mentioned that all organizations ought to evolve a procedure for acceptance of bank guarantee that is compatible with the guidelines of banks and the Reserve Bank of India. One such requirement is that the bank guarantee should be in a proper prescribed format and should be verified verbatim on receipt with the original. Adherence to this principle of verbatim verification would not only avoid undue problems for the employer but would also virtually eliminate subjectivity on the part of the employer. 24. It could thus be seen that it is more than well settled principle of law that when a statute requires a particular thing to be done in a particular manner, it is to be done in that manner alone or not at all. Undisputedly, DFRC is a creation of the said Act and at the most can be construed to be a statutory tribunal constituted under the said enactment. It will be relevant to men....
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....h it is created enables the party to approach it and to decide only the issues which the statute empowers it to decide. The scheme of the enactment which we have discussed herein above would clearly reveal that the DFRC can be approached only by the management and that to only in the event when the difference between the proposal submitted by it and the one approved by the Executive Committee is more than 15%. Conversely if the difference between the fees proposed by the management and approved by Executive Committee is less than 15%, in that event the management also will have no right to approach the DFRC. It could, also, be seen that under Section 6, it is only the management, who has a right to file a first appeal before the Divisional Committee in case the management is aggrieved by the decision of DFRC. It is only the second appeal as provided under sub-section 7 of Section 6, wherein right is given to file appeal by the Management as well as Executive Committee before Revision Committee, if either of them is aggrieved by decision of Divisional Committee. It could thus be seen that the perusal of the scheme would reveal that the statute does not provide for initiation of proc....
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....ndents. We are therefore, of the considered view that the Respondent No. 1 has erred in entertaining the grievance on behalf of the individual parents. 28. We are also of the considered view that the learned Tribunal - Respondent No. 1 has further erred in issuing a direction to again constitute PTA and the Executive Committee. We find that the jurisdiction given to Respondent No. 1 is only to the limited extent of determination of the fees. The dispute with regard to constitution of PTA or the Executive Committee is beyond the purview of the said enactment. If any of the parties are aggrieved with the constitution of PTA, the same being an association, such party would either have to invoke the jurisdiction of the Civil Court, if the association is not registered or if it is registered under the provisions of the Maharashtra Public Trust Act, then the competent authority under the said Act. We find that the direction issued in that regard by the Respondent No. 1, is also without jurisdiction. 29. We have no hesitation in accepting the arguments of the Respondents - Parents that the said enactment has been enacted with the avowed object of prohibiting exploitation of the pare....