The Supreme Court of India has dismissed a plea seeking for fee waiver of CBSE Class 10 and 12 exam fees. The petition was filed by NGO ‘Social Jurist’ seeking direction to the CBSE to waive fee or direct the Center to pay the fee to CBSE from “PM Care Fund”. The pandemic has brought the life to standstill and major impact has been on the students. Many of the parents are facing financial problems due to which they are not able to provide the best to their kids.
The petition was dismissed by a bench of justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah stating that the court cannot direct the government to do this. Instead, the representation should be made to the Government and hence dismissed the plea. However, the High Court has asked the Government of Delhi and CBSE to consider the PIL as representation and take a final decision in accordance with the rules, laws, regulations and government policies applicable to the facts related to the case. The Court has given a deadline of three weeks to the authorities to make a decision for the same.
In the year 2018-19, the examination fee for CBSE 10th, 12th board exams was very nominal, however, in the year 2019-20, there has been an increase in the examination fee in the manifold. Additionally, for the current academic session, CBSE demanded an examination fee of Rs 1,500 to Rs. 1,800 from class 10th students and Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 2,400 from class XII students. In the last academic session, Delhi govt paid the examination fees for CBSE students but for the academic session 2020-2021, it has refused to do so citing financial crunch in the ministry.
Moreover, there has been no update on CBSE 10th, 12th exam date 2021. There are some newspaper reports which suggests that the board shall release the class Xth, XIIth exam date sheet 2021 much earlier than expected, whereas, there are other reports as per which, it is expected that CBSE board exams 2021 shall be held in the month of May instead of March. The officials are yet to make an announcement in this regard too.
