CBSE Class 10, 12 update: Plea in Delhi HC seeking fee refund for cancelled exams

A civil writ petition akin to Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Delhi High Court (HC) seeking direction from the court to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and others to refund the examination fees to students of Class 10th and Class 12th, who appeared for board exams that have been cancelled for this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The petition states that CBSE is completely unjustified in holding the money for class 10th and 12th board exams that were cancelled. The plea stated that it is safe to assume that the national board must have collected crores of rupees as examination fees, ANI reported. The petition was filed by Deepa Joseph, an advocate and social activist. She is also the mother of a Class 10 student studying at a government-run school affiliated with CBSE.

The plea seeks direction from the Delhi HC to CBSE and the Union Ministry of Education to contemplate framing a fresh examination refund policy, under which fee refund will be granted in case of unforeseen circumstances leading to the cancellation of exams.

The plea has been filed through Advocate Robin Raju. It states that the petitioner had paid Rs 2,100 as examination fee to CBSE to appear in Class 10 Board exams for seven subjects. The CBSE Class 10th and 12th board exams got cancelled on April 14, 2021, and June 1, 2021, across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the results are yet to be declared.

The examination fee collected by CBSE is used to pay invigilators and examiners. It is also spent on setting up exam centres in some cases. The petitioner in the plea has argued that due to the exams getting cancelled, CBSE did not have to pay for any of the above-mentioned expenses, hence the board should issue refunds of the money it collected as examination fees.

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