How CA students can get Answer Sheet copies at FREE OF COST under RTI: Supreme Court Orders!

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 ₹.5.00 for each subsequent hour or a fraction thereof.
For each page (in A-4 or A-3 size paper)	₹ 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.

1. Create account and login to your RTI portal by entering Username and Password at below link https://rtionline.gov.in/

• Now, click on submit request option, scroll down and click on the checkbox “I have read and understood the above guidelines.” and then click on the submit button.

Then Online RTI Request Form screen will be displayed. This form can be used to file an online RTI application.

• In search Public Authority filed enter the keyword as
• Chartered and select Institute of Chartered Accountant of India for CA Course
• Cost accountant and select The Institute of Cost Accountants of India CMA Course
• Companies secretaries and select Institute of Companies Secretaries of India for CS Course students, from the drop-down list and click on Ok.

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.

• In the field “Is the Applicant Below Poverty Line?”

• Select the option as Yes, if you belong to BPL - Below Poverty Line category and holds valid proof for the same as Food security Card, ration card etc.,

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.

• Select the option as No, if you do not fall under the BPL category or does not hold valid proof for the same. Such candidates are required to be paid application fee of Rs.10/- online.

• Now in the filed “Text for RTI Request application”, provide details and request for certified copies.

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.

• Now, upload merged pdf copy of BPL Card (if applicable) and Hall Ticket/ Admit Card/ any other supporting document like student I’d card, to prove your identity by clicking the supporting document.

• click on submit button (if BPL category) or Make payment button (Others) to make the payment of Rs. 10/- towards application fee by using Internet banking, credit or debit card and click on the submit button, after making the payment.

• On submission of the application, a unique registration number would be issued, which may be referred by the applicant for any references in future. The applicant will get an email and SMS alert on submission of the application.

What’s next after filing RTI application?

• Just relax and wait for 30 days from the date of your application.

• You are not required to follow-up with the CPIO/ Institute by way of calls, email etc., On receipt of the application, Institute will transfer the application to respective CPIO for further action.

For CA Students:

• Within 30days from the date of your RTI application, you will receive an email from the institute with the link and login credentials to download the requested certified copies.

• No fee is required to be paid, as certified copies will be provided in soft copy format, no fee is to be charged as per RTI rules.

• As per ICAI sources, before providing certified copies/inspection of evaluated answer books to the examinees under RTI, verification of answer books, within the scope of Regulation 39(4), will be carried out, by the office, suo moto, in respect of all applications for inspection and/or certified copy of evaluated answer books under the RTI Act, 2005. As per RTI rules, there is no requirement for suo-moto verification of marks before providing certified copies.

• So, I suggest applying for

• Verification as per ICAI procedure by paying Rs.100 per subject at ICAI exam portal - https://icaiexam.icai.org/. So that you can know the outcome of the verification of marks.

• Certified Copies at RTI portal

• Please note that re-evaluation of answers is not permissible under Regulation 39(4)of the CA Regulations 1988. So, there is no difference between the certified copy obtained as per ICAI process and RTI process.

• Below is the copy of email received from ICAI, with link and login credentials to download the certified copies.

For CWA/CMA Students:

• Within 30days from the date of your RTI application, in reply to your RTI application ICMAI will calculate the fees by charging Rs. 2 per page + applicable postal charges and disclose the total fees to be paid.

• Applicable Fee is required to be paid, as certified copies will be provided in hard copy format through speed post, Rs. 2 per page is to be charged as per RTI rules.

• NO Demand Draft/IPO is required to be taken, as you can make the payment at RTI portal itself by clicking on Make Payment link available post login to RTI portal under view status.

• As per ICMAI sources, no verification of answer books will be done, there is no such requirement as per RTI rules.

• So, I suggest applying for

• Verification as per ICMAI procedure by paying Rs.253 per subject at ICMAI exam portal, so that you can know the outcome of the verification of marks.

http://examicmai.org/emsweb/result/an_subjverifiappli.aspx

• Certified Copies at RTI portal

• Please note that re-evaluation of answers is not permissible as per Institute guidelines. So, there is no difference between the certified copy obtained as per ICAI process and RTI process.

• Below is the copy of reply received from ICMAI, seeking additional fee payment with payment link at RTI portal.

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:

http://bit.ly/RTIdiscrepancy

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.

• no totaling error;
• no carrying over of marks from inside to the cover page of the answer book;
• no question or part thereof has remained unevaluated.

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