Times of India: Chandigarh: Sunday,
May 07, 2017.
While Manohar
Lal Khattar-led BJP government in Haryana might be claiming transparency in
public appointments, candidates, who appeared in the exam for Haryana Civil
Services (HCS) held last year, are struggling hard to get the information about
the selection process.
In some
cases, despite categorical directions of the Haryana State Information
Commission (SIC) to the recruiting agency Haryana Public Service Commission
(HPSC) to provide answer sheets of HCS exam held in April 2016 to the
unsuccessful candidates, the agency has failed to provide the information.
Accusing the
HPSC for making mockery of the RTI Act and the claims of Haryana government of
restoring transparency in public appointments, one Navdeep Singh Suhag of
Rohtak has asserted that all the public service commissions in the country are
providing answer sheets of the civil services examination except HPSC.
In his
application, filed before state information commissioner Major General
(retired) J S Kundu, the applicant has sought initiation of contempt
proceedings against the HPSC for not providing him information.
Suhag had
filed RTI application before HPSC on July 21, 2016 seeking information for
released of answer sheet of HCS examination-2014 concluded in 2016 and result
of which was declared on July 5, 2016. On refusal of HPSC to provide the
information, he had filed an appeal before SIC. In its reply before SIC, the
HPSC had taken plea answer sheets cannot be provided on account of stay granted
by Supreme Court on February 17, 2012 in a similar plea.
After
examining the pleas of both the parties, the SIC, in its January 4, 2017 order,
directed HPSC to provide answer sheets in conformity with recent SC orders,
passed in Kerala Public Service Commission Versus The State Information
Commission and others, holding that the disclosing marks and the answer sheets
to the candidates will ensure that the candidates have been given marks
according to their performance in the exam.
According to
Suhag, despite categorical directions by SIC, the HPSC again denied him answer
sheet on the same and old ground which was effectively rejected by the
Information Commission.
In a similar
case, one Hawa Singh of Karnal district had sought information regarding the
marks obtained by selected candidates in geography, public administration,
math, law, physics, botany and sociology in the HCS examination held in 2016.
On January 27, 2017, the SIC had ordered the HPSC to provide information to the
applicant.
As the HPSC
failed to provide information, Hawa had also filed a contempt petition for
compliance of orders on which the information commissioner has sought reply
from the commission.
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