Rajkot: The chief information commissioner (CIC) of India has come to the rescue of thousands of students who are facing inexplicable delays in getting copies of evaluated answer sheets or are being charged exorbitantly for the copies.In a January 15 order, CIC has directed that universities cannot charge more than Rs 2 per page of the answer sheet. The CIC passed the order on January 15 while deciding on an appeal filed by a Delhi University student Abne Ingty who had challenged the cost of Rs 750 per question paper imposed for accessing answer sheets under the RTI Act.CIC Sridhar Acharyulu said that Delhi University, by imposing a high fee of Rs 750 for providing access to answer sheets under the RTI Act, has created two classes of students — those who can afford to have a copy by paying Rs 750 and those who cannot — which is a clear breach of right to equality guaranteed by Article 14 of the Constitution’’.“Prescribing unreasonable cost and time constraint will in fact amount to complete denial of information to the students on grounds of their economic status, which is in violation of Article 14, 15 and 16 of the Constitution of India.No citizen shall be discriminated on the basis of his access to resources or any criteria including poverty as per his fundamental report to equality. It is very sad that an educational institution like university is not mindful of the basic fact and they are going on denying information to the students, by imposing high cost, which means if you cannot afford, you cannot access,” CIC observed.CIC has directed the University Grant Commission (UGC) and Association of Indian Universities to circulate, publicize and insist on implementation of this order in all academic and examining bodies. It has also directed the Union HRD ministry to make it mandatory for universities to bring uniformity in rules and regulations by fixing cost at not more than Rs 2 per page for the answer sheet.