PESHAWAR, July 3: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday sought explanation from the provincial elementary and secondary education secretary to explain reasons for failing to implement its orders for fee concession to siblings studying in the same private schools.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Khalid Mahmood observed that in case the secretary failed to give a satisfactory answer on the matter, the contempt of court proceedings would be initiated against him and other relevant officials.

It was hearing a writ petition and a contempt of court petition filed against a private institution, the Educator School System, by the father of two students, Malik Abdul Waheed, saying the said school had not been implementing the court orders and instead charged exorbitant fee from their two students.

The bench also put on notice the school’s principal and the executive district officer (education) asking them to submit written replies in the case.

On February 1, 2011, the high court dismissed some writ petitions filed by leading private schools and declared as legal the notification issued by the education department, which makes it binding on them to extend fee concession to siblings studying in the same school.

It also declared a valid legal instrument the Education Code, 1935 under which the said notification was issued by the government to schools.

Ghulam Mohiuddin Malik, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client’s two sons, Malik Fahad and Malik Huzaifa, had been studying at a school of the Educator School System and therefore, he requested the school management to extend fee concession to one of his sons in line with the court orders.

He said the school management extended concession to one of his sons for three months but later arbitrarily enhanced their tuition fees, while the fee of rest of the students were not increased to fraudulently withdraw the concession extended by it.The lawyer said by not extending fee concession to its students, the private school violated the court orders.

It is learnt that some leading educational institutions have not been implementing the court orders and have filed appeals with the Supreme Court against the same.

However, during hearing into some cases, the high court had ruled that as the Supreme Court had not issued any stay order, it was binding on schools to follow its orders.