NEW DELHI: A judicial panel set up by Delhi high court on Friday submitted its report, recommending that over 80 private schools refund the excess fees they had charged in 2009 without paying salaries to their staff as per the Sixth Pay Commission.

Submitting its fifth interim report before the bench headed by Justice B D Ahmed, a three-member committee, headed by former Rajasthan high court chief justice Anil Dev Singh, set up in 2011, examined the financial records of 150 schools on a random basis of a total 1,172 schools. With this report, the committee has so far examined the financial records of 755 private schools in the city.

In the report, the committee said many schools "unjustly" increased the fees and recommended that all of them refund the same with 9% interest to the parents. "The committee, besides recommending refund, has also recommended special inspection to be carried out by the director of education in 26 schools," the report said.

As regards the rest 54, the committee has found that the "fee hike effected by them in pursuance of the order dated February 11, 2009 issued by director of education was either wholly or partially unjustified..."

The bench, also comprising Justice Siddharth Mridul, has fixed the matter for August 1 while directing Delhi government to file a status report within four weeks.

The report further stated that records of 39 schools were found to be unreliable and "hence recommended special inspection to be carried out by director of education".

The panel, however, gave a favourable note to about 31 other schools, saying it "found no reason to interfere qua the fee hike on account of the fact that the hike effected by them was not found to be excessive".

In August 2011, the court had set up the committee to scrutinize accounts of various unaided private schools to determine the validity of Delhi government's February 2009 notification permitting them to hike tuition fees. This order had come on a petition filed by an NGO, Social Jurists, through advocate Ashok Agarwal, alleging that schools had hiked the fees "unreasonably" but failed to pay the salaries of the teaching and non-teaching staff as per the Sixth Pay Commission.