Delhi High Court has directed CBSE to consider as a representation a petition for refund of fees accumulated for conducting class 12th board exams, which was cancelled as per the order dated 1st June due to the second wave of covid-19.
While dismissing the petition, Justice Prateek Jalan highlighted that the CBSE had spent money to improve infrastructure to hold tests in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak. It has been directed to consider the plea filed by a woman, Deepa Joseph and to conclude that whether the exam fees collected can be refunded within 8 weeks either wholly or partially.
During the hearing, justice Jalan highlighted that just because CBSE is not conducting an examination doesn’t mean that it will not encourage any expense as it will be issuing mark sheet and the entire assessment formula was devised by CBSE.
Supporting the words of Justice, advocate Robin Raju argued the petitioner that even if the exams have been canceled, asking for the whole refund from CBSE would not be justified in any way.
Further, the Justice observed that “The substratum of fees you charged is gone since exams are cancelled. Of course, some proportion of the amount you will spend on assessments,”
Meanwhile, Advocate Rupesh Kumar argued on the behalf of CBSE that it is a self-financing institution that does not receive any funds from the Centre. Also, he argued that all the preparations were already done for conducting the examination and the cancellation order came quite later however, the institution will still conduct the exam for the students who will opt for it and no additional charge will be asked for that.
At last, the Court observed that the petition may be treated as a representation by CBSE and liberty has been granted to the petitioner to file a fresh writ petition if it is not satisfied with the decision taken by CBSE.
