New Delhi: The Delhi government on Wednesday told a sceptical high court that it intends to take over the management of 449 private schools that have failed to refund excess fees to parents. The schools had been identified as defaulters by the court-appointed Justice Anil Dev committee that ordered recovery of excessive school fee with a 9% interest. The takeover proposal has been sent to the lieutenant governor for approval recently.

DoE's claim left a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Najmi Waziri part surprised, part bemused, as it wondered if it was a "bluff" by the government to jolt errant schools to fall in line or a serious attempt to run private institutions. "Alarmingly, in 449 out of 544 schools, the department proposes to take over the management in accordance with law which is placed before the lieutenant governor Delhi for approval," the court recorded in its order, asking if "even 50 trained officials or principals are available" with the directorate to handle these schools.

The list of 449 schools furnished to the court includes the names of DPS (Mathura Road), Springdales (Pusa Road), Sanskriti, Modern (Barakhamba Road) and Amity International (Saket). If allowed, the school management of erring private schools will be taken over by the government, with the staff and administration reporting to the education department.

Secretary (education), Punya Salila Srivastava, while appearing in court on Wednesday on behalf of Delhi government, declared that out of 544 schools where refund of excess fees was recommended, 449 will be served a show cause notice in case the proposal is approved by the LG's office.

During the hearing, the bench pointedly questioned the government if it has persons trained to run/manage schools and what this entails for students. "Where will you get 449 officers to take charge of these schools? Take over if you have to, but give us a list of 50 officials who are trained. Our paramount interest is to ensure that students don't suffer," it noted.

Schools called it a "harsh decision" and pointed out that the court had also asked questions on how the government plans to go ahead with the move. "The government cannot manage its own schools but wants to take over 450-odd more private schools. This is a very unreasonable proposal and not a very positive step," said S K Bhattacharya of the Action Committee of Unaided Recognized Private Schools, an umbrella group of several private schools in the city.

He said several schools had grievances related to the calculations of excess fees but have found no forum for redress. "The schools have no platform to put forward their grievances on the matter. While the committee claims it has no jurisdiction over grievances, the DoE too says the same. There is nobody to look into grievances," he said, adding that an opportunity must be given to schools.