New Delhi: On Tuesday, the Supreme Court declined to entertain a plea, which looked for the Delhi government and the CBSE to waive the examination fee for students of classes 10 and 12 in this academic year, as a huge number of families have been hit by financial troubles in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, M.R. Shah, and R. Subhash Reddy said to the petitioner NGO counsel, how could the court direct the government in this issue? The NGO Social Jurist had moved the top court challenging the 28 September order of the Delhi High Court, which requested the AAP government and CBSE to treat the PIL as a representation. The High Court had seen that a decision must be taken as per the law, rules, guidelines, and government policy-relevant in the issue. After a concise hearing on the issue, the top court declined the plea.
The plea registered through advocate Ashok Agarwal, in the top court, said the High Court order had declined relief to 30 lakh students the nation over, out of which 3 lakh are in the national capital.
The plea contested under the watchful eye of the top court that lockdown had hurt the pay of numerous families and in some cases, they are finding it too difficult to even think about fetching two meals in a day. The plea recommended that funds from PM Cares Fund may be used to pay the expense.
Attorney Alok Aggarwal said that in the past CBSE was charging Rs 375 examination fee from Class 10 students and Rs 600 from Class 12 students, in any case, following an update in late 2019, CBSE had increased the fee.
The plea stated, “In the current year 2020-21, CBSE has demanded examination fee from Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,800 from students of class 10 and Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,400 from class 12 students depending upon the number of subjects, practical, etc.”
The plea additionally requested that the Delhi government step in to settle the issue with CBSE since numerous financially disadvantaged students were impacted by the high examination fee.
with IANSinputs
