By Matters India Reporter
Jabalpur, July 12, 2024: The Madhya Pradesh High Court on July 12 denied bail to 14 people, including a Protestant bishop and a Catholic priest, accused in the school fees scam.
The Jabalpur-based court, however, granted bail to a female school principal and anticipatory bail to another Catholic priest, Father Sibi Joseph.
They are among the 51 people associated with 11 private schools and those selling textbooks to these schools in the Jabalpur district of the central Indian state accused of charging exorbitant school fees and selling textbooks with much higher than the market price.
The police had arrested 22 persons, including those denied bail on May 27, and others are still at large.
A single bench of Justice Maninder S Bhatti turned down the bail applications of the 14 people such as Bishop Ajay Umesh Kumar James of Jabalpur diocese of the Church of North India (CNI), Father Abraham Thazhathedathu of Jabalpur Catholic diocese and three pastors.
The court, while granting bail to Soma George, principal of a Catholic diocesan school, gave her the benefit of doubt of not being party to the decision-making body of the school management.
Others, according to the court, were parties to decision making bodies of their schools, as they were principal, manager or other offices.
“The allegations are against the management of the school and though some of the applicants are claiming that they are working as principals but as per the records, they are members of the management society and are in management committee running educational institutions, therefore, prima facie they are connected with the affairs of the school management,” said the court’s order.
“Thus, looking at the nature of allegations against the applicant, this court is not inclined to release/enlarge the applicants on bail. Accordingly, the applications are hereby dismissed,” it added.
The court also noted that the matter is “at investigation stage and the first information reports and the enquiry reports submitted by the committee prima facie reflect allegations against the applicants as regards commission of offence.”
The police report said the schools violated the provisions of Madhya Pradesh Niji Vidyalaya (Fees Tatha Sambandhit Vishayon Ka Viniyaman) Adhiniyam, 2017, a law to regulate fees in private schools.
Under this law, a private school management requires the permission of the district collector for an annual fee hike above 10 percent and the state government approval for a hike of 15 percent and above. But no permission is required for a private school to hike fees up to 5 percent on its own.
Father Davis George, the vicar general of the Jabalpur Catholic diocese, denied the allegation against the diocesan schools saying, “We have complied with the norms and no extra fee charged from the students.”
The Jabalpur police arrested Bishop James on May 27 along with the principals of five Church-managed schools and two pastors for allegedly charging “exorbitant fees” from students in their schools.
The same day the police also arrested Father Abraham Thazhathedathu, priest of the Jabalpur Catholic diocese, a woman school principal and others from two Catholic schools.
The police action was restricted to only 11 schools – seven of them managed by Christians. The district has 1,037 registered private schools.
The news of arrest of several church officials (both CNI and Catholic church schools) in violation of the Madhya Pradesh school fee hike law, (given in the link: https://indiankanoon.org/doc/95740962/), is quite disturbing. More so when Rajya Sabha MP Jose K Mani’s July 2 letter to George Kurian, Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs, to get the church officials released immediately came to naught. A report in the Herald 19-25 July 2024 stated that two Catholic schools have been ordered to refund Rs 18 crore for collecting excess fees from students.
In this connection the Hindu (11.07.2024) reported that the authorities in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur district directed ten private schools to refund about ₹65 crore charged extra as tuition fees from more than 81,000 students. Jabalpur District Education Officer (DEO) Ghanshyam Soni said that the schools had hiked tuition fees in violation of the law. He added that the District Committee (DC) for Regulating Fee and Related Issues had examined the accounts of these schools and found them to be charging extra fees of ₹64.58 crore from 81,117 students between 2018-19 and 2024-25. Mr. Soni told PTI that he had issued notices to the schools on July 9 directing them to refund the illegally collected fees to the students’ parents/guardians.
According to District Collector Deepak Saxena, on May 27, the Jabalpur district administration had got 11 FIRs registered against school functionaries and a few bookshop owners for allegedly raising fees and textbook prices respectively. Action has been taken against them after discrepancies linked to them were unearthed.
The Free Press Journal of 15.07.2024 a list of 79 schools that have been arbitrarily increasing fees has been prepared by Narmadapuram district administration. It was found that the fees had been arbitrarily increased by approximately 10% to 20%. Consequently, the department has summoned the management of these listed schools to appear on July 15, 16, and 18 to respond to inquiries.
The law makes it mandatory for a registered private school to seek prior approval of the District Committee (DC) for Regulating Fee and Related Issues if it intends to raise the fees by more than 10%. If the proposed fee increment is more than 15% of the fee of preceding year, the DC shall send the same along with its comments to the State Committee for Regulating Fee and Related Issues (SC) which is authorized to decide the quantum of the fee increment. Prima facie it appears the 79 schools which have been hauled up ignored this stipulation.
• On completion of the inquiry on fee increase, if the DC finds that fee in excess of that permitted has been collected, it shall direct the management of the said private school to refund it to the students/their parent or guardians.
• In addition to issuing the refund order, DC can impose a penalty up to rupees two lakh on the management of the private school on whom the refund order has been served for the first time; penalty up to rupees four lakh where order of refund is issued for second time and up to rupees six lakh for subsequent orders of refund.
• In addition to imposition of above-mentioned penalty, the DC may also recommend to the competent authority to suspend or cancel the recognition of the said private school.
• The SC shall decide the appeal within such time and in such a manner as may be prescribed. It may reduce or increase the penalty imposed by the DC.
The law doesn’t mention arrest for violation of the Act. In this case arrests could have been made on account of the FIRs filed being categorized as Cognizable Offence. The legal team representing our churches would know better.
At such testing times, we sorely lack a crack team of lawyers from our community. In this connection it may be noted that National Lawyers Forum of Priests and Religious (NLFRP) is a body of around 900 lawyer priests, brothers, and nuns in India (Radio Veritas Asia 05.10.2022). But how many are practising professionals? Are they fighting the MP school fee case? Today when our Christian institutions are having a torrid time, it is high time CBCI/CCBI took on board a crack team of practising paid Christian lawyers.
It must be mentioned several bright priest and nuns are being denied the opportunity to shine in their legal profession. In Kolkata one priest obtained his Bar Council Licence in 2012. But he hasn’t been granted permission to practise in court. He lamented he could have served both Christ and His people much better if he had been allowed by his bishop to practise his legal expertise. In December 2023, a young nun came to Kolkata with high hopes of practising in Calcutta High Court. But her superior invoked the vow of ‘obedience’ and deputed her as a nursery class teacher! She was a quick thinker, managed a transfer to Siliguri and is honing her legal skills there. The crab-society outlook of several heads of congregations is stunting talented priests and nuns and is having a direct impact on quality vocation.
Some reports say that the arrests followed a comprehensive probe by the district administration involving eight Sub-Divisional Magistrates, 12 revenue officials, 25 education officers and 60 other staffers.
Open hearings were held to allow parents to voice complaints and schools to present their side before cases were registered.
The scam amounts to Rs 240 crore perpetrated by private schools across Jabalpur alone.
Imagine how much illegal money is being collected across the country by these criminals including bishops, priests, pastors and nuns who pretend to be pious followers of Jesus Christ.
This must be a “wake-up call” to all Catholic schools run by dioceses and religious congregations.