E-Paper
CBSE faces contempt plea in Supreme Court for charging ₹1,200 for answer sheet photocopies
The petition held that an answer sheet would fall under the Right to Information Act, and therefore, the fees payable to obtain answer sheets should be ₹10 as application fee and ₹2 for each page of information sought.
An organisation of young lawyers working to promote transparency and accountability in public authorities filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court on Tuesday against the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) notification prescribing ₹1,200 as fee for accessing photocopies of evaluated answer sheets.
The petition by Whistle for Public Interest (WHIP) said the fees fixed is in violation of a Supreme Court judgement, holding that an answer sheet would fall under the ambit of Right to Information Act. Therefore, the fees payable to obtain answer sheets should be determined by the transparency law and that is ₹10 as application fee and ₹2 for each page of information sought, the petition read.
The notification dated May 31 prescribing the fee was put up on the CBSE website. It said Class 10 students must pay ₹1,000 and Class 12 students ₹1,200 for obtaining photocopy of evaluated answer sheets. WHIP claims the CBSE had released a similar notification last year also.
The petition further claimed that the information of evaluated answer sheets is retained by CBSE for a limited period of 30-45 days before they are destroyed, and asked for a direction to the board to preserve the papers till the plea is disposed.
“…the alleged contemnor even being the state-run education board and having the responsibility of educating a large section of the society, is blatantly violating law of the land laid down by this court. This wilful disobedience is not only resulting into infringement of the fundamental and legal rights of students every year but also the contempt of this court,” the petition stated.
