Development fund of school is not capitation fee ……Shibu Thomas
Mumbai: Development fund charged by a school cannot be termed capitation fee, the Bombay high court has ruled in an important order. Justice S A Bobde recently ordered that charges of accepting capitation fee be dropped against the principal and two staff members of a kindergarten school in Dadar.
On a plain construction of the definition of capitation fee, collection of which is prohibited, it appears that no offence can be said to have been made out since no rates of fees were regulated by the state government, said the judge.
Under Section 7 of the Maharashtra Educational Institutions (Prohibition of Capitation Fee) Act enacted in 1987, anyone found collecting capitation fee on behalf of an educational institution can be punished with a jail term of one to three years and a fine of up to Rs 5,000.
The case concerned a raid by the anti-corruption bureau in 1999 on Indian Education Societys Ash Lane Kindergarten in Dadar following a complaint by a parent claiming that the school was collecting capitation fee.
The employees were apprehended while accepting an amount of Rs 3,000 towards development fee, for which stamped receipts were issued. The probe was subsequently handed over to the Mumbai police.
Vidya Rao, principal of the school, and two clerks, Sulabha Mujumdar and Rashmi Sawant, were booked for allegedly accepting capitation fee. The subordinate courts dismissed the plea of the three accused for a discharge from the case. They then moved the high court.
The courts below took an erroneous view of the matter and blindly misconstrued the penal provisions, which, needless to say, must be strictly construed, said Justice Bobde.
The term capitation fee has been defined to mean any amount collected in excess of the approved rates of fees regulated. It must follow, therefore, that where no rate of fees has been regulated or approved by the state, the amount so collected cannot be described as capitation fee, the judge added.