The Central Information Commission delivered a landmark ruling on Tuesday directing the Central Board of Secondary Education to furnish evaluated board exam answer sheets to examinees strictly under the nominal fee schedule prescribed by the Right to Information Act.
Information Commissioner Heeralal Samariya issued the binding order while disposing of multiple student appeals that challenged CBSE’s practice of charging between five hundred and one thousand rupees per subject for providing photocopies of answer scripts. The Commission affirmed that statutory bodies cannot circumvent the RTI Act by creating exorbitant parallel fee structures for document disclosures.
The Commission cited authoritative Supreme Court precedents establishing that evaluated answer scripts fall squarely within the definition of information accessible under Section 2(f) of the RTI Act. Under standard central RTI rules, public authorities are permitted to charge only two rupees per page for photocopies after an initial application fee of ten rupees.
The CIC directed the CBSE Chairman to issue administrative notifications aligning the board’s digital examination portal with statutory RTI fee regulations within thirty days. The ruling provides major relief to thousands of students and parents seeking transparent evaluation checks without incurring heavy financial burdens.
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Sources:
https://www.jagranjosh.com/articles/school-assembly-news-headlines-september-8-2026-cbse-rti-answer-sheet-order-pm-modi-gujarat-visit-delhi-building-collapse-other-news-1800016285-1