“This court is taking a very serious note of the violation that has been brought to its notice. Based on the oral complaint, the education department shall conduct an immediate inquiry. If it is found that the institutions are collecting fees in violation of the interim orders passed by this court, immediate action shall be taken against them,” Justice N Anand Venkatesh said.

The issue pertains to challenges made by associations of educational institutions against government order prohibiting them from demanding fee from parents during lockdown.
On July 17, the court allowed them to collect an ‘advance’ fee of 40% from students before August 31 as an interim measure.
This apart, since fee fixed for some of these institutions had expired and fee fixation committees were yet to frame the new fee structure, it was agreed to fix 75% of the fee collected last year as this year’s annual fee provisionally.

The remaining 35% of the fee (deducting the 40% advance) shall be collected within two months from the date of reopening of the institutions and commencement of physical classes, the court had said.
While so, when the court commenced its proceedings on Friday, additional government pleader V Annalakshmi made an urgent mention and submitted that the state was receiving several complaints from parents that schools/colleges were insisting on payment of the entire fees in violation of the interim order.
It was further submitted that parents were hesitant to give a written complaint fearing consequences.
Taking serious note of the same, Justice Anand Venkatesh issued the warningand directed the authorities to conduct an inquiry and file an action taken report by August 17.

Udayakumar said the government had set up 7,500 fever clinics in Madurai and several cases had been detected there.
Four of the five Covid-19 care centres in Madurai have been established in educational institutions. Authorities are now looking for alternative places.