The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday ordered private schools to restore the fee structure in place on September 20, 2017 and reimburse any fees they may have charged from parents in excess of it.

Non compliance with the order will lead to contempt of court proceedings, the court warned. It also ordered private schools to cease and desist from the practice of collecting of three months' worth of fees in one go.

The court also ordered private schools' management to submit any financial details they had previously submitted to the Registrar of the Supreme Court.

A three-member bench of the SHC headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, which has been hearing a case regarding more than five per cent increases in tuition fees by private schools and institutions, said that private schools have till the next hearing to abide by its orders.

During today's hearing, Justice Abbasi had asked private schools if they had charged a higher fees than the amount they were charging on Sep 20, 2017, adding that if they had it was to their benefit to adjust it.

He reminded the private schools' lawyer that the matter had been ongoing since 2005, and the court could have, but did not enforce a much older fee structure as it could have put the schools in financial difficulty.

The court subsequently ordered owners of private schools to issue fee challans or adjustment challans on the basis of the 2017 fees structure.

The court observed that since the schools had been charging much higher fees already, the parents may not be required to pay more money for the coming two or three months.

The next hearing of the case has been fixed for December 17.