Chandigarh, Jul 8 (IANS): The Punjab government will file a letters patent appeal (LPA) in the high court this week against the decision of a single-judge Bench on school fees for lockdown.

The issue came up for discussion informally during the Wednesday's cabinet meeting. After this, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said the LPA should be filed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court within this week, Advocate General Atul Nanda said.

In the June 30 order, Justice Nirmaljit Kaur said all schools, whether they offered online classes during the lockdown or not, were entitled to collect the tuition fee.

The judge also said schools should continue to endeavour and impart online and distance learning so that education was not impacted due to present or future lockdowns because of the pandemic.

While the court is set to hear appeals against the ruling on July 13, the Punjab government has decided to move the court for hearing by a Division Bench in the interest of all the parties, including parents, teachers, staff as well as the schools.

The Chief Minister has made it clear that he was not in favour of schools charging fees from parents if no classes, either offline or online, were held during the lockdown.