CBSE skips refund for cancelled exam

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has finally refunded the money of AIPMT-2015 retest objections filed by the applicants. However, the board has refused to return the objection fee of All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) that took place on May 3, which later stood cancelled.

The CBSE refusal to refund the fee for the cancelled exam came after the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry asked for an explanation, citing representation from a Chandigarh-based academician, Arvind Goyal on October 3.

The letter from the CBSE states, “It is to inform that the challenges submitted by the candidates were checked by the board and the answer keys were found to be correct. As per Rule 16.1 of the AIPMT information bulletin, the amount was to be refunded to a candidate only if his/her challenge is accepted by the board.”

The letter further states, “After completing entire process, the CBSE has completed its work for preparation of result. However, the final declaration was not done in view of the Supreme Court directives.”

The board specified in the letter that since the fee was charged for the process that was completed by CBSE and no challenge was accepted, the fee is not refundable under Rule 16.1. According to CBSE rules, each student can file objection to the answer key, submitting a minimal amount of Rs 1,000 per question and if the objection is accepted, the fee gets refunded to the

"It is good that the CBSE has refunded the money deposited by the students for a retest. But it is difficult to comprehend why they are refusing to refund the money for the AIPMT which was cancelled by the SC,” said Goyal.

"The students did not derive any benefit from that exam and thus, why should their money not be refunded? In fact, the students had to go through the grind of the retest for no fault of theirs. It seems unfair on the part of the CBSE," he added further.

AIPMT has been in controversy for several reasons. The test which took place on May 3 was cancelled by the Supreme Court due to large-scale irregularities including the leakage of answer keys. The re-test was successfully held on July 25 under strict security guidelines.