The Madras High Court on Friday (June 5, 2026) refused to grant an interim stay on a circular issued by the Director of Private Schools on June 1, 2026, which instructed all private schools in Tamil Nadu to display their fee structures on their notice boards.

Justice M. Dhandapani rejected the plea for interim relief and said, he would prefer to take up for final hearing, after two weeks, a writ petition filed by All India Private Educational Institutions Association, represented by its general secretary K. Palaniappan of Chennai.

The petitioner association had challenged the June 1 circular, as well as Tamil Nadu Information Commission’s (TNIC) May 25, 2026, order, based on which the circular had been issued. It had urged the court to quash the TNIC’s order and the circular and stay them until the disposal of the main case.

What is the case about?

The court was informed that an individual named M. Liyakath Ali had in 2022 filed an application under the Right to Information Act of 2005, seeking information regarding the fee structure of private schools. The application was addressed to the Public Information Officer (PIO)/Personal Assistant to Coimbatore Chief Educational Officer.

The PIO forwarded the application to the District Education Officer (DEO) who, in turn, forwarded it further to the individual schools in the district. Aggrieved over it, the applicant had taken the matter on second appeal before the TNIC and complained about the information not having been given to him.

The TNIC issued wide-ranging directions on the matter on May 25, 2026. It was in compliance of those directions that the Director of Private Schools had issued the circular under challenge, mandating all private schools to display their fee structures on their notice boards, the petitioner association said.

Assailing the TNIC’s order and the circular on various grounds, the association said, such directions and instructions had been issued without analysing whether the RTI Act would apply to private unaided educational institutions and whether those institutions would fall under the definition of the term ‘public authority.’

The petitioner’s counsel said, it also had to be analysed whether the TNIC had exceeded its jurisdiction under the RTI Act by passing suo motu directions of a legislative and regulatory character amounting to a general policy mandate for all private schools functioning in the State.

After hearing the preliminary arguments, the judge decided to take up the writ petition for final disposal pursuant to the filing of counter affidavits by the respondents.