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Now CA students get Answer Sheet copies at Free of Cost and CMA students at a nominal cost under RTI : Supreme Court Orders!
Dear Friends,
RTI Act is the most revolutionary act for setting out the practical regime of Right to Information, the 3 Key building pillars behind the act are Responsibility, Transparency and Accountability, which empowered Indian Citizens to secure access to information directly from the Government/Public Authorities.
In this article, I have penned down various Hon’ble Supreme Court judgements, provisions of the RTI Act, 2005 and procedure to apply for certified copies through RTI portal, application format, payment of fees etc., for students and members to obtain certified copies from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), ICMAI and ICSI at a nominal cost.
ICAI / ICMAI procedure to obtain Certified Copies
As you are aware of the process to obtain certified copies as per the Institute procedure, where a student has to apply online for seeking Inspection/Certified copies of answer books within 30 days from the date of declaration of the result of the relevant examination along with the Fee of Rs. 500/- per paper and certified copies of your answer books will be provided within 30 days from the date of receipt of your application.
The above Institute procedure is an expensive one and a student has got to pay Rs. 500/- per paper for Inspection/ Certified copies.
For example, if a CA Final student desires to apply for certified copies of all the 8 subjects, he has to incur Rs. 4,000/- (Rs.500 per subject × 8 subjects) which is more than the Examination fee i.e., Rs. 3,300/-
RTI procedure to obtain Certified Copies
To enable easy access to the information, the Right to Information Act, 2005 provides access to certified copies of answer sheets at a nominal cost and inspection at free of cost.
RTI Act is in force since 2005, every year many students are applying for certified copies under the RTI Act, 2005 but, Institute has been denying the answer-scripts to the candidates and compels candidates to seek their answer-scripts as per Institute procedure which provides for the cost of Rs. 500/- per subject.
A similar case has happened with ICSI and Mr. Paras Jain, a student of ICSI, fought tirelessly for 7 years and went to the Supreme Court. And on 14th of April, 2019 Supreme Court in the judgement ICSI Vs. Paras Jain, made clear that, a candidate is free to apply for certified copies under the RTI Act, 2005 or as per the procedure laid down by the Institute and fee as to be charged as per the RTI rules when an application is made under the RTI Act, 2005 but not as per the Institute guidelines.
ICAI guidelines and fee for certified copies as per the RTI Act, 2005.
As per the announcement No.13-CA(Exams)/WdngPlcy/2012 dated November 16, 2012 answer books of the examination conducted by ICAI are retained for a period of four months (120) days from the date of declaration of result of the relevant examination and in regulation 39(4), Institute has specifically mentioned that a student can seek verification, inspection and/or certified copy of answer books under the Right to Information Act, 2005.
Whether ICAI will provide certified copies under RTI?
YES!
To establish and follow the law laid down by Supreme Court, ICAI appointed CPIOs (Central Public Information Officer) exclusively for providing certified copies under the RTI Act, 2005 to the students and members. The concerned CPIO list was updated on ICAI website dated 29th Aug, 2019.
Source: https://www.icai.org/post.html?post_id=12152
CPIO for Providing certified copies related to CA Final Examination/ Post Qualification Examination conducted by the Examination Department
Shri Alok Malhotra
Email Id: alok.malhotra@icai.in
Tel. No.: 0120-3894808
CPIO for Providing certified copies related to CA IPCC/Foundation/CPT
Shri Chatar Singh
Email Id: chatar @icai.in
Tel. No.: 0120-3054840
Whether any fee is required to be paid for certified copies under RTI:
To enable easy access to the information, the Right to Information Act, 2005 provides access to certified copies of answer sheets at a nominal cost and inspection at free of cost.
Rule 4 of the RTI Rules, 2012, prescribes a fee for information as follows:
1. Application fee:
While making RTI applications, the payment of RTI Fees of Rs. 10/- needs to be made and the same is waived off for applicants falling below the poverty line by producing the proof of BPL Category.
2. Additional Fee for Inspection/Certified Copies:
Inspection of Records | No fee for the first hour; a fee of â¹.5.00 for each subsequent hour or a fraction thereof. |
For each page (in A-4 or A-3 size paper) | â¹ 2.00 per page of photocopy |
For information in Soft Copy (PDF) format | Free of Cost |
How to apply for certified copies through RTI Portal?
A candidate can make an online application at his doorsteps without visiting any office, though user registration is not mandatory to file RTI application, I suggest you create an account at RTI online site, so that you can have a list of applications in user account and details like name, email, the address will be auto-filled while filing RTI application.
Then Online RTI Request Form screen will be displayed. This form can be used to file an online RTI application.
Name, address, educational qualifications, communication details will be auto-filled, if you have created an account at RTI portal and you can change the same, if required.
No application fee is required to be paid by such citizens as per RTI Rules,2012
Enter BPL card number, year of issue, issuing authority in the next field.
There is no prescribed form of the application under the Act, 2005 but, I have referred to application formats of various institutes and have prepared a draft for your reference.
Download the draft application from the below link, in the word document format, enter your details and copy-paste the contents in the prescribed field.
(Application format is given at the end of the article for your reference)
http://bit.ly/Applicationformat
Please note, handwritten application form is not required, Institute process and RTI process both are different platforms.
What’s next after filing RTI application?
For CA Students:
For CWA/CMA Students:
http://examicmai.org/emsweb/result/an_subjverifiappli.aspx
What if, you have noticed a mistake/discrepancy in the certified copies received through RTI?
After receiving certified copies, if there any discrepancies, you can report the same to ICAI through physical application via speed post in below format:
No fee is payable in such cases and such a request must be made within 30 days of issue of certified copies.
Only discrepancy as covered under Regulation 39(4) will be entertained i.e.
Conclusion
Accessing certified copies through RTI is a thumping victory for the entire Students Community!
My sincere gratitude is reserved for Advocate Paras Jain sir, Advocate Kumar Shanu sir and Whistle For Public Interest (WHIP) for their invaluable insights and suggestions benefitting millions of students to access information of answer-scripts under RTI.
If you’ve had any questions, you can reach me on mail: cavinayreddy@icai.org or mobile(preferably on WhatsApp) +91 7569989230 I can help you out.
Thank you!
Vinay Reddy
Jai Hind!
Right to Information is to make you right thinking Indians
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