DU
Express: Dilhi: Wednesday, September 05, 2018.
The
Delhi University earned over Rs 3 crore in fees paid by students for either
revaluation or rechecking their answer-sheets and for providing photocopies of
answer-sheets to them between 2015-16 and 2017-18, an RTI has
revealed.According to the information provided by the university, it earned Rs
2,89,12,310 for revaluation alone between 2015-16 and 2017-18.During the same
period, it earned Rs 23,29,500 for rechecking and Rs 6,49,500 for providing
students copies of answer-scripts evaluated.
According
to DU rules, one will have to pay Rs 1,000 for revaluation of a single copy and
Rs 750 for rechecking of the answer script. Rechecking only means re-totaling
of the marks. Students will have to pay the same amount if they want to get a
photocopy of the answer script. The information regarding the income generated
was shared by the DU in response to an RTI application filed by a former
student.He has demanded that he be allowed the inspection of his answer-script
free of cost as per a certain RTI section which allows inspection of public
records.
“I
had filed an RTI seeking inspection of my answer-script in 2016.My plea dragged
on for two years and I had to take recourse to the CIC (Central Information
Commission) which ordered the university to let me inspect the answer-script as
per RTI’s Section 2(j).The RTI Section 2(j) lays down that a person can access
records kept under any public authority for, among other purposes, “inspection…
taking notes, extracts” said the former student.
The
Central Information Commission (CIC) in its August 18 decision ordered the
Delhi University to allow the applicant inspection of his answer copy in
“larger public interest”.When he was not allowed the inspection of his
answer-sheet even after the CIC decision, the former DU student approached the
Public Information Officer of the university later in the month through another
RTI, who told him that the university’s Examination Branch (which keeps the
answer-sheets) has decided to challenge the verdict.
Earlier,the
university officials had contended against allowing of inspection of
answer-sheets as per the RTI Act provisions, saying that doing so “would render
their existing mechanism of providing hard copies redundant”.The Respondent
apprehended that allowing inspection of files would render their own mechanism
of providing certified copy of answer-scripts as per the fee prescribed in
their regulations as meaningless, since the candidates would certainly opt for
inspection as per RTI Act, 2005, the CIC noted in its verdict.