SIC upholds appellant request seeking access to judicial service exam papers

Greater Kashmir: Srinagar: Wednesday, August 15, 2018.

The State Information Commission has asked the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission to allow an appellant see all the sought information about judicial service competitive examinations of 2013 after hearing two appeals about denial of the same.

In response to the appeal the SIC asked the Public Information Officer (PIO) of Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (PSC) not to deny the appellant information sought by her under the J&K Rights To Information Act, 2009.

The SIC said that the decision of the PSC was not in consonance with the provisions of the RTI Act in force in the state, also citing the law laid down by the Apex Court in this respect.

The appellant had filed an RTI with the PIO, asking for complete merit list with breakup of marks obtained by the candidates who have qualified Jammu and Kashmir Civil Service (Judicial) Competitive examination 2013.

She had also requested for the breakup of marks secured by a particular applicant who had appeared in the exams and copy of the answer scripts of the mains examination of all the subjects of the applicant.

The PIO vide his communication no. PSC/Exm/RTI/53/2017 dated 24-10-2017 informed the applicant in response to point that the marks cards were already available on the Commission’s website.

To another part of request for information, the PIO informed the appellant that PSC does not provide the Xerox copies of evaluated answer scripts.

Aggrieved by the response of the PIO, the appellant filed an appeal before the First Appellate Authority (FAA), Secretary J&K PSC on Nov 25, 2017 arguing the PIO has refused to provide information sought about the answer scripts.

The appellant also contended that the information sought by her pertained to the appellant and that the requested information was not exempted from disclosure under section 8 of the J&K RTI Act, 2009.

The appellant accordingly prayed that the PIO be directed to furnish the requisite information and a reference under section 16(3) of the Act be made to the SIC.

The FAA disposed of the 1st Appeal on February 2, 2018 stating the providing information about answer scripts would reveal details of the evaluators which is kept secret.

“The PIO (Exams) has already provided the information sought by the applicant except the Xerox copies of answer scripts as providing of Xerox copies of answer scripts which usually bears the initials/signatures of evaluators and the same i.e. Xerox copies may lead to disclosure of their particulars to the candidates/Public,” the response to the RTI request reads.

“The applicant is not entitled to have the names/particulars of evaluators as has been held by the Supreme Court in SLP titled Kerala Public Service Commission and ors Vs. State Information Commission and ors. However, the PIO (Exams) will allow the inspection of answer scripts by the appellant under the close supervision of the officer designated by the Commission for the purpose.”

The appellant challenged the orders of PIO denying the specific information and also the order of FAA disallowing Xerox copies of answer scripts but allowing just a supervised inspection in the 2nd Appeal filed before the State Information Commission.

The SIC finally reached the conclusion that a public authority was under statutory obligation to provide the information sought by the appellant in this case under the provisions of RTI Act.

“Under this Act, a public authority is under a statutory obligation to provide every kind of information to an information seeker that comes within the ambit ‘information’ as defined in section 2(d) of the J&K Right to Information Act, 2009. Section 2(d) defines the expression ‘information’ as any material held by a public authority in any form including records, documents, e-mails, opinions, advices, reports, papers etc. Answer script of a candidate is available with an examination body in the form of record/document. Therefore, answer script qualifies to be ‘information’ held by the examining body within the meaning of section 2(d) of the J&K RTI Act to which a candidate can seek access under the RTI Act,” the SIC directive reads.