Ahmedabad's St Xavier's Loyola school asked to refund ₹2 cr in fees

The Ahmedabad zonal Fee Regulatory Committee (FRC) had ordered a reduction in the 2024–25 fees of St Xavier’s High School, Loyola Hall in Naranpura.

However, the school charged parents the earlier, higher fee and also challenged the FRC’s order before Gujarat government’s Fee Revision Committee (FRC-R).

After hearing the matter, the fee revision panel has dismissed the school’s revision application. The school will now have to refund more than ₹2 crore collected as excess fees from parents.

As per the revision committee’s order, the school can also be penalised by the Ahmedabad zonal Fee Committee.

As per the FRC order, St Xavier’s Loyola runs private primary classes from Standards 1 to 8 with 1,562 students. For the three-year period from 2024–25, 2025–26 and 2026–27, the school had submitted expenditure statements seeking approval of revised fees.

On scrutiny, the total approved expenditure was ₹3,39,92,851, translating to a per-student cost of ₹21,570.

Based on this, the fee panel had initially approved a provisional fee of ₹22,500 for the academic year 2024–25.

The school demanded ₹39,360 as annual fees for 2024–25, almost the same as ₹39,359 charged in 2023–24.

Subsequently, the zonal FRC fixed provisional fees at ₹22,500 for 2024–25, ₹23,500 for 2025–26 and ₹25,000 for 2026–27.

The school filed objections on December 6, 2024, following which a hearing was held on February 7, 2025. After the hearing, the committee passed a final order approving fees of ₹26,250 for 2024–25, ₹27,500 for 2025–26 and ₹29,250 for 2026–27.

As the school was dissatisfied with the approved fee structure, it approached the Fee Revision Committee in Gandhinagar.

However, pending appeal, the school collected full fees for 2024–25 without any reduction. Taking note of this, the fee panel directed the school to deposit ₹2 crore as fixed deposit towards excess fees collected.

With the Fee Revision Committee dismissing the school's appeal in its final order, the school will have to refund more than ₹2 crore to parents.

It may be noted that in the current academic year, following orders from the District Education Officer (DEO), the school had reduced fees from the second term and is charging students as per the revised rates.