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Contempt plea filed against CBSE for not providing answer sheets as per SC order and RTI Act
Vinita Deshmukh 15 June 2018
Public Interest
One of the premier educational boards of India, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has been charging exorbitant fees for providing copies of answer sheets to students in the face of a landmark Supreme Court (SC) judgment in 2011. Despite another order from the apex court hammering CBSE to respect the judgment and RTI rules in 2016, once again it has shown the audacity to continue fleecing students seeking answer sheets.
 
The CBSE published a notification on 29 May 2018 on its website prescribing an exorbitant fee of Rs1,200 per subject for obtaining copies of the evaluated answer-sheets. In response to this notification, a contempt petition has been filed against its Chairman, in the Supreme Court last week, appealing for  
 
  • initiating contempt proceedings against the CBSE chairman; 
  • setting aside the CBSE notice of 29  May prescribing the fees of Rs1,000 and Rs1,200 for obtaining copies of the evaluated answer sheets and 
  • directing CBSE to provide copies of the evaluated  answer-sheets to examinees, only as per the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005 and at the cost or fee prescribed under the Right to Information Rules, 2012. 
 
It may be recalled that, on 6 August 2016, the Supreme Court had directed the CBSE to ``scrupulously observe the directions of this court in civil appeal no 6454 of 2011 and the rules framed under the RTI Act 2005. The landmark 2011 judgment ordered that: ``Answer-sheet is an information and the examinees have the fundamental and legal right to access their evaluated answer-sheets under the Right to Information Act, 2005.(RTI Act).” (Read: SC asks CBSE to provide answer sheets strictly under RTI Act without charging exorbitant fees)
 
The contempt petition has been filed by Whistle of Public Interest (WHIP), for the willful and deliberate attempt of CBSE to surpass and overrule the authority of the apex court of the country. This is the second time that WHIP has filed a contempt petition on this subject, the first time being in 2016. Kumar Sanu, one of the founder members of WHIP, says, “In 2016, it came to our knowledge that CBSE was charging an exorbitant fee of Rs1,200 for showing copies of answer-sheets and was blatantly denying access to evaluated answer-sheets, a right granted under the RTI Act. This was not only the violation of a fundamental right of lakhs of students every year but also a willful contempt of the Supreme Court of India. Hence we filed a contempt petition against the Chairman, CBSE.”
 
Consequently, a division bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and PC Pant had directed the Chairman, CBSE to scrupulously observe the directions of the Supreme Court issued in CBSE & Anr. Versus Aditya Bandhopadhyay & Ors., Civil Appeal No. 6454/2011 and provide copies of the evaluated answer-sheets as per the rules made under the RTI Act. 
 
Disheartened to witness a public education board responsible for educating a large section of the society making a mockery of the rule of law, Sanu states, ``Now, we have again filed a contempt petition seeking initiation of contempt proceeding against the Chairman, CBSE.’’
 
(Vinita Deshmukh is consulting editor of Moneylife, an RTI activist and convener of the Pune Metro Jagruti Abhiyaan. She is the recipient of prestigious awards like the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting, which she won twice in 1998 and 2005, and the Chameli Devi Jain award for outstanding media person for her investigation series on Dow Chemicals. She co-authored the book, “To The Last Bullet - The Inspiring Story of A Braveheart - Ashok Kamte”, with Vinita Kamte, and is the author of “The Mighty Fall”.)
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