CBSE Receives Notice from Delhi HC regarding Petitions against Board Exam Fee Hike; Check Details Here

The Delhi High Court issued a notice to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on October 7, 2020, on a plea against a hike in the board exam fee for students of class X and XII for the year 2021.

A division bench of the high court governed by Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan questioned the CBSE, Central and Delhi government to file a reply over the plea by the Parents Forum for Meaningful Education association. The matter would be further heard on November 12, 2020.

The petitioner society was filed through advocates PS Sharda and Kshitij Sharda, informed that the CBSE for the year 2019-2020 arbitrarily increased its board exam fee for Class X and Class XII by few folds as compared to the year 2017-2018. Also, several folds were seen in comparison to 2014-2015.

According to the petitioner, the fee was raised to about Rs. 2400, for practical science and additional subject option case and hiked by 2400% for SC/ST students.

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The plea stated, “Due to inability to afford the blatantly arbitrary enhancement of fee by poor stakeholders of government and aided schools under R2 (Delhi government), it wisely met the fee obligation to R1 for the academic year 2019-2020 and assured the stakeholders that it would have the same sorted out for future to avoid a repeat of this malady in the future.” 

The plea directs CBSE to form an empowered committee to review, submit a report to the court for required standards to implement fixation of norms for board exam fees for the students in government schools.

"The children have a right to education guaranteed by the constitution. A fair examination is the culmination of that process. The Respondents cannot conduct their affairs in any manner as works prejudicial to the interests of the students," the plea added.

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The plea added that the Delhi government has been unable to find a solution as promised last year but, this year, it has declined to fulfill the steep fee obligation, thereby risking the education of lakhs of class X and XII students in government schools.

"This has directly hit children hailing from economically poor sections of the society studying in the government and aided schools in class X and Class XII under Delhi government and are consequently imperiled and if not rescued will get left abandoned which cannot be acceptable to any responsible state," the plea further stated.

Thus, the petitioner organization demanded that CBSE must seek a final solution through themselves or with the intervention of the Central Government and ensure no student suffers because of non-payment of a fee for the year 2020-2021.

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