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Delhi Act 4 of 2025: What School Parents Can Demand

Delhi Act 4 of 2025: What School Parents Can Demand - RTI Wiki

Last reviewed: 3 September 2026.

Quick answer: A circular reaches you in the middle of the session. The fee is going up, the due date is next Friday, and the letter hints that results will be held back. Delhi now has a separate fee statute for exactly this. Under it, a fee that was not determined under the Act is one the Director of Education can order rolled back with immediate effect, with the excess refunded within 20 working days, and the school can be fined Rs 1,00,000 to Rs 10,00,000. Separately, the school may not strike your child's name off the rolls or withhold examination results to make you pay such a fee.

For years a Delhi parent facing a mid-session fee demand had almost nothing specific to quote back, because fee disputes were fought under the general Delhi School Education Act, 1973 and in writ petitions. That changed on 14 August 2025, when the Delhi Gazette published a dedicated fee statute with its own committees, its own appeal ladder and, for the first time, a money penalty on the school itself.

The statute is The Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Act, 2025, Delhi Act No. 4 of 2025. It received the assent of the Lt. Governor of Delhi on 13 August 2025 and was published in the Delhi Gazette Extraordinary, Part IV, No. 242, dated Thursday, 14 August 2025. Note the exact name: it is Fees, plural, and the operative body is the School Level Fee Regulation Committee, not a fee “fixation” committee.

One thing to check before you quote it. Section 1(3) says the Act “shall come into force on such date as the Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.” The Act itself does not carry that date, and we did not confirm a commencement notification for this page. So use the language of entitlement, not of the calendar: say what the Act provides, and ask the Directorate of Education in writing for a copy of the notification under section 1(3), with its number and date. That question is the first item in the sample RTI application below.

What the Act gives a parent that the 1973 Act did not

Three things, and all three are worth memorising.

  1. A named body that must approve the fee before it can be charged. Section 3 says no school, by itself or through any other means on its behalf, shall collect any fee in excess of the fee fixed or approved under this Act.
  2. A price on overcharging. Section 12 puts the rollback, the refund clock and a graded fine on the school, not merely a direction to behave.
  3. A ban on the pressure tactics. Section 13 lists the coercive methods a school may not use, and section 13(2) attaches a penalty of Rs 50,000 per violation against every student.

The Act does not displace the older law. Section 20 says its provisions are in addition to and not in derogation of any other law in force, including the Delhi School Education Act, 1973 (Central Act No. 18 of 1973) and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (Central Act No. 35 of 2009). Section 2(1)(15) also pulls in the definitions of the 1973 Act for anything this Act does not define.

Its reach is wide. Section 2(1)(13) defines “School” to include a private unaided pre-primary, primary, elementary, secondary, higher secondary or senior secondary school, recognised or unrecognised, affiliated to any Indian or foreign board, including schools run by minority educational institutions and schools given land at concessional rates by government agencies.

What you can ask the school to produce

Most of these are duties the Act places on the school. You are not asking for a favour; you are asking it to produce the document the Act itself requires to be on display.

What to ask for Where the Act provides it
The list of the Chairperson and members of the School Level Fee Regulation Committee for the current academic year Section 4(2) requires that list to be displayed on the school notice board and website within seven working days of the committee's formation, and thereafter forwarded to the officer authorised by the Director of Education within a further seven working days
The approved fee, broken up head by head Section 5(6) requires the committee to indicate the different heads under which the fee shall be levied. Section 5(4) requires the approved fee to be displayed on the notice board in Hindi, English and the school's medium of instruction, and on the school website if it has one
Proof that the fee you are being charged is the approved fee and not a fresh proposal Section 5(3) lets the committee decide the amount afresh, but the approved figure shall not be more than the fee proposed by the management
Confirmation of how long the figure is locked Section 5(5): the fee approved by the committee is binding on the school for three academic years
The basis for a term fee Section 2(1)(6)(ii) defines term fee as a fee that shall not exceed one month tuition fee per term
Whether a development fee is being charged twice The Explanation to section 2(1)(6)(ix) says that where the student is admitted into a school having the facility to undertake education up to the tenth standard or any standard below it, the student shall not be required to pay the fee once again
What you pay while a dispute is pending Section 5(7): during the pendency of a reference before the District Fee Appellate Committee, the management shall collect the fee of the previous academic year
A copy of any appellate decision the school is contesting Section 7(2) requires a school preferring an appeal before the District Fee Appellate Committee to place the copy of the decision under appeal on its website and notice board

One more point that matters for the 2025-26 year specifically. The second proviso to section 5(1) says that for the academic year 2025-26, the fee being charged by schools with effect from 1 April 2025 shall be deemed to be the proposed fee for the purposes of section 5. That deemed figure is the baseline the approval process starts from, which is precisely what a mid-session increase has to be measured against.

The pressure tactics the Act names and forbids

This is the part most Delhi parents have never read, and it is short enough to quote at a counter.

Section 13(1) opens: “No school shall harass or coerce any student for non-payment or delayed payment of fees by means of but not limited to”. The listed methods include:

Two details do the real work here. First, “but not limited to” means the list is illustrative, so a method the school invents is not automatically outside the section. Second, section 13(2) provides that any violation of these provisions shall attract a penalty from the Director of Education on the management of Rs 50,000 per violation against every student. The proviso adds that no such penalty shall be imposed without giving the affected parties a reasonable opportunity of being heard.

Read that again with a whole class in mind. The unit is the student, not the incident.

The penalty ladder in section 12

Section 12 is the section to name in any complaint about an unapproved fee.

Situation What section 12 provides
A school is found levying a fee not determined in accordance with the Act and its rules The Director of Education shall direct the school to roll back such fees with immediate effect and to refund the excess fee to the students within 20 working days or earlier, section 12(1)
First violation A penalty not less than Rs 1,00,000, which may extend to Rs 5,00,000, section 12(2)(a)
Second or subsequent violation A penalty not less than Rs 2,00,000, which may extend to Rs 10,00,000, section 12(2)(b)
Rollback and refund not done within twenty days The school is liable to pay double the fine imposed, proviso to section 12(2)
Non-compliance extends to forty days The amount becomes triple
Non-compliance extends to sixty days The amount becomes quadruple, “and so on”
Repeated violations, until all of them are addressed and satisfactorily resolved The Director of Education may additionally debar the person in charge from holding any official post in the management or the school, restrict the management's right to propose fee increases for subsequent years, suspend recognition, withdraw recognition, or order the taking over of the management of the school, section 12(3)
Any penalty order Cannot be passed without giving the management a reasonable opportunity of being heard, section 12(4)

Recovery is not left to goodwill either. Section 14 gives the Director of Education, for the enforcement of penalties, all the powers of a civil court executing a decree under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, including attachment and sale of the movable or immovable property of the school management and the appointment of a receiver.

Who fixes the fee, and where you appeal

Stage Who What the Act provides
Proposal Management of the school Section 5(1): the management is competent to propose the fee, but a school whose recognition is suspended or withdrawn has no right to propose any fee until that is revoked. Section 5(2): the proposal for the next block of three academic years, with records, goes to the School Level Fee Regulation Committee by 31 July of the current academic year
Approval School Level Fee Regulation Committee Section 4(1)(b) requires every school to constitute it, not later than 15 July, for each academic year. Section 5(4): after considering the section 8 factors, it approves the fee by unanimous agreement within 30 days of receiving the proposal
Deadlock District Fee Appellate Committee Section 5(7): if the committee fails to decide by 15 September, the management shall refer the matter to the District Fee Appellate Committee, not later than 30 September
Parent appeal District Fee Appellate Committee Section 5(8): an aggrieved parents group may appeal against the committee's decision within 30 days. Section 7(7): the appellate committee communicates its decision within 30 days of receiving the appeal and not beyond 45 days in the same academic year, failing which the matter stands automatically referred to the Revision Committee
Final appeal Revision Committee Section 7(9): appeal within 30 days of the appellate decision. Section 10(2): the Revision Committee's decision is final and conclusive and binds the parties for three academic years
Oversight Director of Education Section 11: may, suo motu or otherwise, call for the records of any of the three committees to verify that their proceedings conform to the Act, and issue appropriate directions

The composition of the school level committee is the reason it is worth engaging with. Section 4(1)(b) puts the management's nominee in the chair and the Principal as Secretary, but it also puts three teachers selected by draw of lots, five parents from the Parent-Teachers Association selected by draw of lots, and an observer nominated by the Director of Education on the same table. Section 4(3) requires at least one member from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes or socially and educationally backward classes, appointed by rotation, and provides that not less than two members shall be women. Section 4(4) sets the term at one academic year, and section 4(7) requires a general meeting at least once before 15 August every year.

Two anti-capture rules sit alongside. Under sections 4(5) and 4(6), no parent member may enter the draw of lots for more than two consecutive years, and after two consecutive years of membership that parent is ineligible to participate in the draw for the next two years.

Note the threshold before you plan an appeal. Section 2(1)(2) defines an “aggrieved parents group” as a group of parents of students not comprising less than 15 per cent of the total parents of the affected standard or of the school, as the case may be. One parent acting alone is not that group, so the first practical task is usually organising the numbers.

Step by step when a hike letter arrives

  1. Date-stamp the letter. Note the date you received it, not the date printed on it, and keep the envelope or the email header. Every clock in this Act runs off a date someone will later dispute.
  2. Pay nothing extra on a verbal instruction. Ask for the demand in writing on school letterhead, showing the amount head by head.
  3. Ask for the two documents in writing. The section 4(2) list of School Level Fee Regulation Committee members, and the section 5(4) head-wise approved fee. Give the school a short written deadline and keep a copy of your letter with a received stamp.
  4. Check the arithmetic against the definitions. A term fee above one month's tuition per term, or a development fee charged again at a stage the Explanation to section 2(1)(6)(ix) covers, are both worth flagging in your letter.
  5. Talk to the parent members on the committee. Five of them come from the Parent-Teachers Association by draw of lots. They sat in the approval meeting, and section 5(4) requires unanimous agreement.
  6. Build the 15 per cent group. Section 2(1)(2) sets that floor for an aggrieved parents group, and section 5(8) gives that group 30 days to appeal to the District Fee Appellate Committee.
  7. File the RTI in parallel. The school may not answer you, but the Directorate of Education holds the approvals, the committee lists and the penalty orders. Use the letter below, and the AI RTI Drafter if you want it formatted for you.
  8. Diarise the reply date. Thirty days from filing, under section 7(1) of the RTI Act. The RTI Deadline Calculator and the Timeline Tracker will keep the dates straight.
  9. If results or attendance are being used as leverage, say section 13 out loud. Put it in writing to the Principal, copy the Director of Education, and cite section 13(1)(a), section 13(1)(b) and the Rs 50,000 per student penalty in section 13(2).

Documents to keep in one folder

Sample RTI application to the Directorate of Education, Delhi

To
The Public Information Officer
Directorate of Education
Government of NCT of Delhi
Old Secretariat, Near Vidhan Sabha, Delhi 110054

Subject: Information under Section 6(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005
regarding fee fixation under the Delhi School Education (Transparency in
Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Act, 2025 in respect of [SCHOOL NAME]

Sir/Madam,

Please provide the following information in respect of [SCHOOL NAME],
[full address], [district / zone]:

1. A copy of the notification issued under Section 1(3) of the Delhi School
   Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Act, 2025
   appointing the date on which the said Act comes into force, with its
   number and date. If no such notification has been issued as on the date
   of this application, please state so.

2. Whether the said school has constituted a School Level Fee Regulation
   Committee for the academic year [YEAR] as required by Section 4 of the
   said Act, and a copy of the list of the Chairperson and members of that
   Committee as forwarded to the officer authorised by the Director of
   Education under Section 4 sub-section 2.

3. A copy of the fee proposal submitted by the management of the said school
   under Section 5 sub-section 2, and a copy of the fee approved by the
   School Level Fee Regulation Committee, showing the different heads under
   which fee is to be levied, for the academic year [YEAR].

4. Whether any reference or appeal in respect of the said school is pending
   before the District Fee Appellate Committee of [DISTRICT], and if so, its
   file number and date of institution.

5. The number of orders passed by the Director of Education under Section 12
   of the said Act directing roll back of fees and refund of excess fee, and
   the number of penalties imposed under Section 12 sub-section 2, in
   [DISTRICT], year wise, with the total amount of penalty imposed and the
   total amount actually recovered.

6. The number of penalties imposed under Section 13 sub-section 2 of the said
   Act for recovery of fee through coercive means, in [DISTRICT], year wise.

7. A copy of the rules framed under Section 19 of the said Act, if notified,
   with the notification number and date.

If any part of this request is held by another public authority, please
transfer that part under Section 6(3) of the RTI Act, 2005 within five days.

I enclose the prescribed application fee. Please supply the information
within 30 days as required by Section 7(1) of the RTI Act, 2005.

Yours faithfully,
[Name]
[Full postal address]
[Phone / email]
[Place, Date]

If nothing arrives in 30 days that is a deemed refusal, and a first appeal lies under section 19(1) of the RTI Act. The First Appeal Builder will draft it, how to file an RTI in India covers the basics, and the RTI Fee Calculator tells you what to pay in Delhi.

Common mistakes

An illustrative situation, not a named person. A parent in a Delhi private school receives a circular in October raising the annual fee, with a warning that results will be withheld if the arrears are not cleared. She writes to the Principal asking for two things: the list of School Level Fee Regulation Committee members that section 4(2) requires to be displayed, and the head-wise approved fee under section 5(4). She gets no reply, so she files the RTI application above with the Directorate of Education and starts collecting signatures towards the 15 per cent aggrieved parents group in section 2(1)(2). On the threat itself she sends a separate letter quoting section 13(1)(b) and the Rs 50,000 per student penalty in section 13(2), and keeps the school's original circular. If the Director of Education later finds the fee was not determined in accordance with the Act, section 12(1) requires a rollback with immediate effect and a refund within 20 working days, and section 12(2) puts a penalty of at least Rs 1,00,000 on the school. The figures quoted here are the statutory floors and ceilings, not a prediction of what any officer will actually order.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Delhi school fee Act of 2025 in force yet?

The Act does not say. Section 1(3) provides that it shall come into force on such date as the Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint, and the gazette text of the Act carries no such date. Ask the Directorate of Education for a copy of that notification, with its number and date. Item 1 of the sample RTI application above is drafted for exactly this.

Can my school raise the fee in the middle of the academic year?

Section 3 prohibits a school from collecting any fee in excess of the fee fixed or approved under the Act, and section 5(5) makes an approved fee binding on the school for three academic years. If a school is found levying a fee not determined in accordance with the Act, section 12(1) requires the Director of Education to order a rollback with immediate effect and a refund of the excess within 20 working days or earlier.

Can the school strike my child's name off the rolls over unpaid fees?

Section 13(1)(a) lists striking down the name of a student from the rolls for non-payment of fees not determined as per the Act as a prohibited coercive means. Section 13(2) attaches a penalty of Rs 50,000 per violation against every student, imposable by the Director of Education on the management after a hearing.

Can the school withhold my child's examination results?

Section 13(1)(b) names withholding examination results as a prohibited method of coercing a student over non-payment or delayed payment of fees. Denying access to education, classes or activities and public humiliation or psychological harassment are on the same list, and the list is expressly “not limited to” those entries.

What is the maximum fine on a school that overcharges?

Under section 12(2), a first violation attracts a penalty of not less than Rs 1,00,000 extending to Rs 5,00,000, and a second or subsequent violation not less than Rs 2,00,000 extending to Rs 10,00,000. The proviso doubles the fine if the rollback and refund are not completed within twenty days, triples it at forty days and quadruples it at sixty days.

Who actually approves the fee in my child's school?

The School Level Fee Regulation Committee constituted under section 4(1)(b) for each academic year. The management proposes the fee under section 5(1) and (2), and the committee approves it under section 5(4) by unanimous agreement, after weighing the factors in section 8, and it cannot approve more than the management proposed.

How many parents do we need before we can appeal?

Section 2(1)(2) defines an aggrieved parents group as a group of parents of students not comprising less than 15 per cent of the total parents of the affected standard or of the school, as the case may be. That group may appeal to the District Fee Appellate Committee within 30 days under section 5(8).

What do we pay while the dispute is being decided?

Section 5(7) says that during the pendency of a reference before the District Fee Appellate Committee the management shall collect the fee of the previous academic year. Get the school's position on this in writing before you pay anything above last year's figure.

Can I take the fee dispute straight to a civil court?

Section 17 bars the jurisdiction of civil courts over any matter in relation to which the School Level Fee Regulation Committee, the District Fee Appellate Committees, the Revision Committee, the Director of Education or an officer authorised under the Act exercises power, and bars any injunction in respect of anything done or intended to be done under the Act.

Does this Act replace the Delhi School Education Act, 1973?

No. Section 20 says this Act is in addition to and not in derogation of any other law in force, including the Delhi School Education Act, 1973 and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009. Section 2(1)(15) also imports the 1973 Act's definitions for terms this Act leaves undefined.

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