Decide within 8 weeks on exam fee refund: HC to CBSE

Decide within 8 weeks on exam fee refund: HC to CBSE

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:  15.07.2021 

Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to take a call in eight weeks if it will refund the examination fees taken from students for class X and XII board examinations that were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Justice Prateek Jalan asked CBSE to consider as representation a petition by Deepa Joseph, mother of a Class X student studying in a CBSE-affiliated school, who had paid Rs 2,100 as examination fee. The CBSE’s decision would be open to challenge if Joseph is not satisfied, the court clarified as it disposed of the petition.

Claiming that the expenditure incurred by CBSE to conduct board examination, as well as its role in the process, was less, the plea pointed out that as per the new policy, “schools were uploading the marks”. The court, however, disagreed and wondered how the role of the board can be reduced.“If CBSE is not doing anything, you take the marksheet from schools and go,” it told the petitioner.

CBSE said it was a self-financing body and its expenditure was principally funded by the examination fees collected from students appearing in boards.