CBSE retests
A senior police officer said the two cases were registered on a complaint by a regional director of CBSE. Police have formed two special i nvestigation teams headed by two DCPS, four ACPS and five inspectors. The two FIRS have been registered under sections of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy against ‘unknown persons’. Police are yet to identify any suspects.
Special commissioner of police (crime) RP Upadhyaya said police are probing the source of the Whatsapp messages. “We have questioned around 25 persons in the case, who are mostly students who had received the question papers over Whatsapp,” he said, adding t hat CBSE says the papers were leaked in Delhi. According to a senior police officer who asked not to be identified, CBSE officials have said that the question paper set was not tampered with at any of the examination centres across the city.
Hindustan Times has learnt that some teachers, parents and students plan to approach the Delhi high court seeking a re-test in other subjects as well, and an independent investigation. The parents and students claim that even the Class 10 social studies and Class 12 biology papers were leaked. Rumours and reports of leaks have swirled around since the beginning of the important exams, although CBSE has consistently denied these. The Class 10 exams are important because they decide the stream a student can choose in Class 11, and the Class 12 exams because they are a significant component in college admissions.
The process to set the question paper starts in July-august the previous year, a paper-setter said. Each subject expert identified by the board sends in three versions in longhand to a highpowered committee. This panel finalises the question papers to be forwarded to the board. Twentyseven sets are printed for each subject and paper-setters do not know which one will make it to the examination centre on the day of the exam.
On Monday, CBSE denied claims on social media that the economics paper was leaked ahead of the exam as reports surfaced of the question paper being circulated through Whatsapp hours before the exam.
“We have checked with all examination centres and the paper was not leaked. The source of the circulation of this information is not known yet,” a senior CBSE official said.
The decision to conduct re-tests caught parents, students and teachers by surprise.
“My child had spent months preparing for the exam and taking the test again is a major issue. We are really stressed over this. CBSE should put better measures in place so that it is not repeated,” said Lalita Devi, a parent from Delhi. “In my 36-plus years of experience, I don’t remember students ever having to retake the board exams. Earlier also, the paper may have leaked, but we may have not known. There have been rumours after almost every exam this year about a possible leak,” said Manohar Lal, the principal of DPS Mathura Road. hard to tackle past abuse and prevent future abuse. We appreciate the opportunity to answer questions the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology has raised, as we continue our review of the situation,” a Facebook India spokesperson said in response to an email query.
Experts however said that the government’s questionnaire may not yield much except showing it is serious about data misuse and stressed on the need for a strong data protection and privacy law. Apar Gupta, a Delhi-based lawyer and cyber media law expert, said the government’s communiqué to the social media company is not a legal request and does not originate from any clear basis in law. “Hence, FB may not only choose to ignore it but also will not have any objective legal standard from which to make their response. This entire exercise on part of the government may assuage public concern but will not solve the underlying problem of the absence of a legal protection for data protection,” he added. A 10-member committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge BN Srikrishna is in the process of examining privacy and data protection issues and coming up with a draft legislation.
Sunil Abraham, founder of the think tank Centre for Internet and Society, said Wednesday’s letter sends out the message that Indian policy makers are serious about holding Internet giants accountable for their actions and the eyes of these decision-makers will be on FB in the run up to the next election. India is a key market for Facebook with 217 million people using the platform every month. The company also operates instant messaging app Whatsapp which recently introduced payments on its platform, giving the company access to financial data of Indian users.