The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has stated that it has initiated the process of refunding money to candidates who had filed objections to a question in the biology section of the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT), held on July 25.
Replying to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by local academician Arvind Goyal, the CBSE said 112 students across the country had submitted objections to this question, for which five grace marks each had already been awarded.
The test had been re-conducted after the Supreme Court scrapped the one held on May 3 following allegations of paper leak.
According to CBSE rules, a candidate has to deposit Rs 1,000 per question for raising an objection. The amount has to be refunded if the objection is accepted. A local parent, Smita Mahajan, said, “My son filed objections to five questions, which amounts to Rs 5,000, but the board has not yet given any response regarding the fee refund.”
Arvind Goyal had earlier filed a petition with the Punjab and Haryana high court, seeking directions to the CBSE to display the AIPMT answer key and invite objections to questions. He had also submitted an RTI application to the CBSE earlier, seeking information about the total fee received from students for filing objections regarding the May 3 AIPMT. The board, however, denied having any concrete information about the money received.
On October 3, Goyal wrote to the Union human resource development ministry to look into the matter and direct the CBSE to refund the money. The letter said, “It is hard to believe that the CBSE does not have any record of questions for which objections were submitted to the board. Any exam which affects nearly Rs 5.75 lakh candidates all over India is definitely an issue in larger public interest.”
{{/usCountry}}On October 3, Goyal wrote to the Union human resource development ministry to look into the matter and direct the CBSE to refund the money. The letter said, “It is hard to believe that the CBSE does not have any record of questions for which objections were submitted to the board. Any exam which affects nearly Rs 5.75 lakh candidates all over India is definitely an issue in larger public interest.”
{{/usCountry}}No response has been received from the ministry so far.