Bhubaneswar/Cuttack, June 15: The Central Board of Secondary Education's (CBSE) decision to increase re-evaluation fees for answer books has irked parents and students, who were already demonstrating against discrepancies in the Class XII board results that were announced recently.
The CBSE has hiked the fees from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,700 per subject for re-evaluation. The order will be applicable from today for all those seeking re-evaluation of papers and also cover the 158 students whose papers were to be re-assessed by the CBSE following a Orissa High Court directive on Tuesday.
"Earlier, the CBSE charged Rs 1,000 per subject for re-evaluation. Now, they are charging Rs 1,700 per for all 158 students," said Sudarshan Das, convener/chairman of the Odisha Abhibhabak Mahasangh, an umbrella association of parents.
Following Tuesday's high court order to revaluate answer books of 158 Class XII students, who alleged discrepancies in the awarding of marks, hundreds of students today made a beeline to the board's regional office at Saheed Nagar in Bhubaneswar to submit application forms.
Earlier, the charge for verification per subject was fixed at Rs 500, while that for obtaining a photocopy of an answer book was set at Rs 700. Students, however, felt that the board was fleecing them as they had the right to see how the evaluator had marked them and, therefore, the Rs 1,200 fee was unjust.
To avoid paying the whole sum, many students had applied for re-evaluation by paying Rs 10 per subject under the Right to Information Act. According to a Supreme Court directive: "Answer sheet falls within the definition of the Right to Information and every student has the right to seek a copy of the answer sheet within 48 hours of filing an application under section 7(1) of RTI Act."
In another development, the CBSE's regional head has been moved out of the state and a new officer has joined here. Besides, two senior officers have arrived from Delhi to interact with the agitating students and parents.
Orissa High Court has admitted the board's petition urging it to re-examine the "re-evaluation" order it issued on June 7.
The CBSE, represented through its regional office in Bhubaneswar, filed the review petition on Tuesday. A fresh batch of petitions seeking re-evaluation of answer books of 158 Class XII students was also moved on that day. A single judge vacation court took up both the review petition and the 158 others for analogous hearing.
The CBSE's counsel contended that the petitioners were seeking re-evaluation of scripts on the basis of a notification issued on May 24, 2016, which was no longer in force at present.
An amendment was incorporated through a notification issued on November 29, 2016, deleting the provisions for re-evaluation much before the CBSE Class XII Examination 2017 began. A separate set of modalities for the board examination for this year, implementing the amendment, were prescribed through a notification on May 29.
"Hence, the contention of the petitioners is not tenable," the CBSE counsel said.
Counsels for the petitioners, on the other hand, countered that the November 29, 2016, notification in which the amended clause deleting provisions for re-evaluation was incorporated, could not be relied upon as the last date for filling up application forms with fine for the board examination was over by that time and the students had already filled up their forms.
"Therefore, it is submitted that the rule of the game cannot be changed when the game is already on," the counsels argued, adding that the examination process had already begun.
After preliminary hearing, the vacation court admitted the CBSE's review petition and posted the matter for after the summer vacation when the court reopens on June 19.
