Plea In Delhi High Court Seeks Refund Of Exam Fee Of Cancelled CBSE Examination

In light of the recently canceled Board Examinations by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for Xth and XIIth standard students, a plea has been filed before the Delhi High Court seeking refund of the examination fees collected from students.

Filed by one Deepa Joseph, who describes herself as an Advocate, a social welfare activist and the mother of a child in the Xth standard in a CBSE-affiliated school in Delhi, the plea has been moved against the CBSE and the Ministry of Education through its Secretary.

The plea states that, the petitioner paid a sum of Rs.2100/- as examination fees for appearing in Class X Board Examinations to the CBSE for 7 subjects. The Board Examinations for Class X were cancelled on April 14, and the results of the exam have still not declared. Subsequently, the Class XII

Board Exams were also cancelled on June 1, considering the Covid-19 situation across the country.

The examination fee for Class XII is stated to be a sum of Rs.1500/- and Rs. 150/- for each practical subject and Rs. 300/- for each additional 6th Subject and a Migration Fee of Rs. 350/-. The fees of Class X Board exams is Rs. 1500/- (for 5 subjects) and Rs.300/- per extra subject and Rs. 150/- per project work - paid by the students last year as per Board requirements.

The plea filed through Advocate Robin Raju states that as "the said examination fees is levied from parents by CBSE for paying the invigilators and examiners, or is spent on setting up of exam centres," thereby "covering all kinds of expenses related to the conduct of exams", the petitioner contends that with the board exams cancelled, the Respondent should refund the money collected as examination fee as it will not have to incur the aforementioned expenses.

The plea further states that in reply to an RTI query, CBSE has said that probable registered students for Class X was 21,50,759 and for Class XII was 14,30,258. This implies that CBSE received crores of rupees as examination fees, which is unjustified, allegedly.

Therefore the plea seeks, the issuance of a writ of mandamus to direct the Board to take steps to refund the examination fee collected by it from students of Class X and XII for board examinations of the academic year 2020-21.

It further seeks directions to consider formulation of a fresh examination refund policy wherein refund of fees will be granted when unforeseen circumstances like pandemic and subsequent cancellation of exams.

Deepa Joseph Vs Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)