Delhi high court on Tuesday wondered if parents in the city earn only to pay school fees even as it extended its interim stay on hike till May 8. A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta questioned the Directorate of Education (DoE) for allowing schools to charge higher fees and sought to know the process by which the department either allows or rejects fee hike proposals. The court also asked DoE to furnish a sample decision of each of the cases where it rejected a proposal by a school to hike fee and one where the directorate allowed such an increase on the ground of revised salaries payable as per recommendations of the new pay commission. The bench indicated it would like to closely scrutinise if DoE considers all aspects raised by the schools and parents before taking a call on the need for a fee hike. Appearing for DoE, standing counsel Ramesh Singh, however, told the bench that DoE has been trying to control the continuous fee hike by schools and argued the single judge order severely restricted the powers of the directorate in this regard. The HC had earlier stayed the single judge order allowing interim fee hike while making it clear private unaided schools, which did not approach the court or sought the government’s approval to hike fees, will not get the benefit of its final orders. A single judge had allowed private unaided schools to go ahead with an interim hike in fees to implement the recommendations of the seventh central pay commission on salaries of teachers and other employees. The directorate challenged the order, arguing its approval is necessary as per law before any hike can be effected. During the hearing, DoE also told the court that of the 364 schools which were part of the action committee, 266 had applied to hike fees and of them 58 have been granted approval; 34 had withdrawn their proposals, applications of seven are still pending and the remaining 167 were rejected.