CIC gives limited access to answer sheets

The law states that a citizen (student) cannot seek disclosure of evaluated answer sheets under the RTI Act 2005, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Apr 24, 2007, 23:22:30 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Students would not have access to answer sheets under the Right to Information (RTI) Act whereas the officials appearing for the departmental examinations or proceedings would be able to exercise this right.

The Central Information Commission, while disposing five appeals, said providing answer sheets of public examinations conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Universities and Central Board for Secondary Education will make the system unworkable. “We therefore decide that a citizen cannot seek disclosure of the evaluated answer sheets under the RTI Act, 2005,” the final order of Wajahat Habibullah, chief information commissioner, stated.

CBSE had pointed out that they have 9,000 schools and about 12 lakh examinees each appearing in five subjects, thereby producing six million answer sheets. CBSE contended that disclosing answer sheets would have no ‘finality’. Agreeing with CBSE, the CIC observed that each university and board has a mechanism for re-evaluation that can be used for allaying apprehensions about the fairness of the system.

But, a better mechanism, according to CIC, would be boards and universities introducing a system where giving back of the evaluated answer sheets is a regular practice, then an exception.

The CIC has, however, made certain exceptions to its rule. Answer sheets of examination conducted by public bodies like Lok Sabha Secretariat, Railways, Jal Board or Delhi Development authority for recruitment or promotions could be sought under RTI Act. But each case would have to be examined individually to ensure that the information provided does not render the system unworkable, the CIC said.

The rationale given by CIC for apply RTI Act for such examinations was that disclosure of the answer sheets will bring in fairness, transparency and accountability and would not render the system unworkable as the number of examinees are limited.

The CIC also made it clear that the DPC minutes or proceedings are not covered under any exemptions provided under section 8 (1) of the RTI Act but cautioned the Central Public Information Officers to follow the procedure laid down in section 11 of the Act.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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