A group, representing public-spirited law students, has filed a memorandum to Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) chairman YSK Seshu Kumar pointing out that the board was violating the Supreme Court ruling of 2011 that said every student had the fundamental and legal right to access his/her answersheet under RTI Act at a charge of Rs 2 per page.

Students of classes X and XII have to pay Rs 1,000 per subject to gain access to their checked answersheets and get them scrutinised again.

In January this year, Whistle for Public Interest, run by Patna boy Kumar Shanu and his colleague Paras Jain, both law graduates, had even filed a contempt petition against CBSE in Supreme Court for wilfully disobeying its 2011 ruling.

The group came to know about CBSE charging exorbitant fees from students after the group filed an RTI application. Shanu said: "Based on RTI reply, the group gathered that the CBSE charges each student Rs 700 per subject for providing the copy of the answersheet. Moreover, students are compulsorily required to go through the process of verification of marks, whereas the CBSE has prescribed a fee of Rs 300 per subject. So students are required to pay a total of Rs 1,000 to gain access to the copies of answersheets and get the marks obtained in every question verified."

The group has even requested the CBSE chairman to discontinue with the unfair practice and the arbitrary rule of charging exorbitant fees from students. However, the board has indicated its inability to comply with the said judgment. The Telegraph has possession of the copies of both the RTI reply application and the CBSE reply.

The CBSE reply made by Kavita Vazirani, the deputy CBSE secretary, mentions that around 25 lakh students appear for the board examination every year and it has to maintain 1.25 crore copies every year. CBSE charges the amount to meet the incidental expenses in removing the all assessed copies, kept under codes, and other expenses.

A Loyola High School student, who has taken the Class X board examination, said: "We know about the fact but we don't have any alternative but to abide by the CBSE directive. Every student has to pay Rs 1,000 to see his/her answersheet and get it scrutinised."

Repeated attempts to contact the CBSE regional officer, R.R. Meena, and CBSE assistant secretary Arvind Kumar, failed.