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CBSE circulars demanding personal info of school staff and parents challenged in High Court
The petition, filed through advocate Vedant Varma, also challenged the requirement mandatory submission of Aadhaar card details of teachers and staff on Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE), which is an online application form available on the website.
The Delhi High Court on Monday sought the response of the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) on a plea which had challenged the circulars in which the schools affiliated to the board had been asked to share personal information of the school staff, and students on the Online Affiliated School Information System (OASIS).
Justice C Hari Shankar issued notice to the CBSE on the plea by Forum for Promotion of Quality, a body of private schools, which had also challenged the move of the board to impose a fine of ₹50,000 on the affiliated schools for non-submission of data on the OASIS form, which is available online.
The petition, filed through advocate Vedant Varma, also challenged the requirement mandatory submission of Aadhaar card details of teachers and staff on Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE), which is an online application form available on the website.
The plea said that the information sought by the CBSE is a violation of what the Supreme Court had ruled on Right to Privacy.
No CBSE official was available for a comment despite repeated calls and texts.
The plea said that CBSE is an examination board which neither has the mandate to encroach upon the autonomy of affiliated schools, nor has the legal authority to unilaterally prescribe stipulations by issuing administrative circulars which is beyond its jurisdiction.
“…it is not within the purview of CBSE to issue this kind of administrative orders which are beyond its objectives and have no correlation whatsoever with the purpose behind its constitution and functioning. CBSE has transgressed its boundaries and has gone beyond the purpose for which it has been constituted,” the plea read.
The circulars, which had been facing challenge, were issued on November 10, 2016 and April 24, 2018.
The plea also said that the CBSE’s exercise of examination, academics and training could be carried out without putting the sensitive data in the public domain. “In fact, putting this in-depth information in public domain is harmful to the interest of the schools, its staff and students,” the plea argued.
It said that once the schools have been granted recognition by the Directorate of Education (DoE), there is no requirement for displaying the information sought by CBSE on the website of the DoE.
The matter would be now heard on August 27.
Earlier, the Delhi government had also sought Aadhaar and voter ID card details of the students and their relatives. However, this was done away with following the orders of the apex court. The Delhi government had still been seeking the voter ID card details to ascertain whether the students are permanent residents of Delhi.
