New regulation bill will end arbitrary fee hikes in Delhi private schools: Education Minister

NEW DELHI: All private and unaided schools in Delhi irrespective of where they are built will now need prior permission from government before raising their fees from now on, Education Minister Ashish Sood said on Thursday. Until now, only around 350 schools built on government-allotted land were required to seek approval before hiking their fees, he said.

"With the introduction of the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Bill, 2025, this regulation will now apply to all private schools across the city," Sood said, describing the legislation as a major step towards ending arbitrary fee hikes and increasing accountability in the education system. "This bill is not just a formality. It is a promise to parents that fee structures will no longer be manipulated at will," he reiterated.

According to official data, "The new law also addresses various shortcomings in the existing system, which relied on the Delhi School Education Act and Rules, 1973 (DSEAR), and several court judgments." These older rules applied mostly to schools built on government land with specific allotment conditions, leaving a large number of schools outside the purview of fee regulation, it said.

The official record further mentioned that nearly 1,443 private schools, mostly located on private land or on government land without such conditions, have remained unregulated for years. The Department of Education (DoE), in an official order dated June 8, 2022, had declared that fee hikes proposed for the 2020-21 academic session were invalid. Schools were not permitted to charge any increased fees for the sessions 2020 to 21 and 2021 to 22.

DoE cites lax review of school fee hikes

However, this order was often ignored or challenged by private institutions, it noted. It further said that soon after the COVID-19 pandemic, the then government approved fee hikes for 227 schools. The DoE also said that out of 262 schools that submitted fee hike proposals for 2023-24, only 28 were reviewed. "Such a casual approach allowed schools to raise fees without scrutiny. Several of these institutions later obtained stay orders against government circulars meant to curb such hikes," the order added.

In response to Ashish Sood's allegations, AAP Delhi state president Saurabh Bharadwaj criticised the bill, calling it a diversion. "The BJP minister is misleading Delhi's middle class. This bill is designed to protect more than 350 private schools from High Court and Supreme Court rulings that previously kept their fee structures under tight scrutiny," he said.

Bharadwaj claimed that under existing laws and court directions, these schools were already required to seek permission from the director of education before increasing fees. "The bill seeks to undo these conditions," he alleged. The Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Bill, 2025, that will regulate the fee hike in all schools was introduced in the Assembly on Monday.