Want revaluation of DU result? Take RTI route instead of paying Rs 1,000

The high court in an order issued on September 24 refused to grant the stay asked for by the university against a CIC order

In what could be a big relief to students seeking inspection of their answer-sheets through RTI, the Delhi High Court has ordered the Delhi University to allow the inspection of answer-sheet to a former student under RTI by refusing to stay the CIC order against which the varsity had approached the court.

The high court in an order issued on September 24 refused to grant the stay asked for by the university against a Central Information Commission (CIC) order, according to which it was to allow the inspection of the answer-sheet to a student who had sought it under an RTI provision.

The order, in effect, paves the way for a number of such students who may have chosen the RTI route for checking their copies instead of paying a fee to the university.

"It is clarified that this court has not stayed the impugned order dated June 18, 2018 (the CIC order) and inspection of the evaluated answer-sheet shall be provided... as directed.

"The question whether a student has any right to seek inspection of his/her answer-sheets will be considered on the next date," the court said in its order.

A former law student of the university had sought the inspection of his answer-sheets through an RTI in 2016, but the matter dragged on for two years, forcing him to approach the intervention of the CIC.

The CIC adjudicated in favour of the student, ordering the Delhi University to allow him the inspection of his answer copy -- as prescribed under Section 2(j) of the Right to Information Act -- in "larger public interest".

The Delhi University, which under the current system charges a fee -- Rs 1,000 for revaluation of a single copy and Rs 750 for its rechecking -- from the students, challenged the CIC order in the court and asked for a stay on it, contending that allowing the inspection under RTI "would render their existing mechanism of providing hard copies...redundant".

How DU profits from students' revaluation or rechecking of answer-sheets fee

According to reports, the Delhi University earned over Rs 30 million 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.

According to the information provided by the university under RTI, 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.

Revaluation row

The revaluation process was scrapped off by Delhi University in 2013. But due to continuous protests by the students and Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU), the administration re-introduced the system in the University in 2014. The final hearing on the matter is reserved for January 30 next year.

According to University Information Centre, "revaluation means to re-evaluate the paper of a particular subject completely. For this, a candidate has to completely surrender their original marks of a particular subject and accept the final result as declared by the University as a result of revaluation."

The fee imposed on it was Rs 1,000 and it had to be submitted with the revaluation application form.