Need for Increased Awareness of Commercial Laws in Unaided Educational Institutions

Abstract

Indian Education Sector is highly regulated. Number of statutes and laws influence the working of the Educational Institutions. Contrary to the belief that excellence in legal compliance is expected only in a Corporate set-up, this article highlights through some practical examples, how equally important the same is for Educational Institutions, even though most of them operate in a non-corporate set-up. Case for better legal awareness and compliance is particularly strong for institutions in the private unaided sector because costs of inefficiencies due to poor legal awareness and compliance on the part of these institutions have to be borne by the students for no fault of theirs as their fees are linked with the costs. For example, if a tax, by law is not required to be paid by the educational institutions due to some exemption, is erroneously paid, then eventually it is the student who has to pay the price of this inefficiency by way of higher fees. The article examines the present level of legal awareness amongst educational institutions, the implications and also offers suggestions for improvement.