Delhi private school fee hikes now need 15% parents’ approval, audit proofs; charges capped at Rs 25-500

Amid parents’ protests over arbitrary fee hikes, the Delhi government has officially notified the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Act, 2025, introducing stringent rules for private unaided recognised schools, four months after the Delhi Assembly passed the bill.

Under the new Delhi school fee framework, private schools can only charge fees approved by the government. The legislation caps registration fees at Rs 25, admission charges at Rs 200 and caution money at Rs 500.

Tuition fee may include only operational and academic expenses, explicitly excluding capital expenditure. “Any amount collected or demanded by a Private Unaided Recognized School that is not explicitly approved under this Act or these Rules is hereby defined as an ‘Unjustified Fee Demand’. This includes, but is not limited to, any charge not listed under the officially sanctioned categories of Obligatory or Earmarked heads,” the new regulations state.

Under the new rules, parents now have the right to challenge fee hikes. A group of parents representing a minimum of 15% enrolled students from a school can appeal against a proposed fee structure before the District Fee Appellate Committee within 30 days from the date of complaint issuance. The rules also mandate sharing all financial documents with parents within seven days, either as hard copies at Rs 1 per page or as free soft copies.

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Delhi School Fee Hike: Audit requirements, timelines

Schools are permitted to increase fees only after they submit three years of audited financial statements certified by a chartered accountant registered with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). Any proposal submitted with unaudited documents will be rejected automatically, the new rules add.

“Every proposal for fee revision or fixation submitted by the School Management to the School-Level Fee Regulation Committee shall be accompanied by a set of duly audited financial statements, including balance sheets, income and expenditure accounts, and cash flow statements for the last three financial years, certified by a CA registered with the ICAI,” according to the new rule.

The deadline to submit the fee hike proposal is July 31 every year. Schools missing the deadline will have to continue the previous year’s fee structure.

The schools should have to maintain a complete set of financial and administrative records, including the cash book, fee and salary, assets register, and vouchers, along with a head-wise fee breakup publicly.

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Delhi Schools: Fee regulation committees

The new rules also mandate every school to form a School-Level Fee Regulation Committee (SLFRC), which will include five parents (selected through a draw of lots), three teachers, and one government observer.

However, the SLFRC will not function or take decisions unless all members and the observer are present, the order says.

In addition, the Forum for Indian Parents (FIP) has expressed strong objections against the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Act, 2025 that the new rules promote commercialisation and impose unreasonable responsibilities on parents.

This is the first time that the government has acknowledged parents as stakeholders in deciding the school fees where their wards have been studying. However, the parents have argued that the rules also place the responsibility for verification of audits and filing complaints on them, which should lie with the department of education.

Stating that the delayed rules have already created confusion over the fee structure for the 2026-27 academic session, the parents forum said: “No clarity on the fees for 3 years block as to whether the fees structure for the next three years would be same or different. The fees which would otherwise need to be paid after three years has to be paid now for all three years."