In fact, the Delhi government had brought the Delhi School Education (Fee Determination and Regulation Transparency) Act in December 2025 to ban private schools from arbitrarily increasing fees. Till now it was believed that this law will be implemented on private schools this year and parents will get rid of the arbitrarily increased fees, but today the information given to the Supreme Court has made it clear that parents will have to wait longer for this.

When will the Private School Fee Regulation Law come into force?

The Delhi government told the Supreme Court that the law regulating private school fees will come into effect from the 2026-2027 academic session instead of the ongoing 2025-2026 session. This was said when the Supreme Court bench of Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe was hearing petitions filed by private school associations challenging the Act in the Delhi High Court. Earlier, on January 19, the Supreme Court had said it would be ‘difficult’ to implement the law during the ongoing academic session and asked the Delhi government to consider postponing its implementation till April 2026.

What did the Supreme Court say?

Justice Narasimha said today that when this matter came before us, our only concern was the haste in implementing the law. We would have kept it aside, but the government said it will be implemented from next year, so our interference ends. However, Delhi High Court will continue to hear the petitions of private schools which are challenging this law. The Supreme Court has rejected the petition.

What are the rules in the fee law?

• To decide the fees, a multi-level committee system of parents, teachers, school management and government officials will have to be formed.
• School-level committees will have to decide on fee proposals by July 15 every year.
• The district-level review should be completed by July 30.
• According to the rules, the decision to increase fees should be taken by the month of September.
• After the implementation of the Private School Fees Regulation Act 2025, private schools will not be able to increase fees without the approval of the government.
• A fine ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh can be imposed on private schools that increase fees without approval.
• If the law is broken repeatedly, the fine can be up to Rs 10 lakh.
• If the excess fees collected are not returned within the stipulated time, the fine will double every 20 days.
• Schools that completely or repeatedly ignore rules and regulations may even lose the right to increase fees.

Fee law will be applicable on 1700 private schools of Delhi

The law prohibiting charging arbitrary fees by private schools will come into effect from next year i.e. academic session 2026-27. This will be applicable to all 1700 private unaided schools of Delhi. This eliminates existing loopholes and ensures that every fee increase follows a transparent process.