‘Answersheets of govt service exam covered under RTI’

Express News Service : Posted: Fri May 28 2010, 23:08 hrs Chandigarh:

In a landmark judgment, the full bench of the Punjab State Information Commission today ruled that a candidate appearing in a competitive examination for employment in government service has the right to access — after declaration of the result — evaluated answersheets, and that this right extends to accessing not only his own but also the scripts of other competing examinees.

The commission said an answersheet was neither a document of commercial confidence nor a trade secret. “It is also not an intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of the third party after the declaration of the result... Once the result is declared and performance of the competing examinees is put in public domain, secrecy has no service to perform; it is better buried... Merely because an examiner has etched marks on the body of the answersheet, it does not become a secret document. It is just a mindset and nothing more,” the bench ruled.

The judgment will have far-reaching implications and help in bringing transparency in the much-maligned system of public recruitment, said CIC R I Singh on behalf of the bench, which comprised Surinder Singh, Lt Gen P K Grover (retd), P P S Gill, and D S Kahlon.

However, information pertaining to the identity of the paper-setter and invigilators or evaluators could be withheld as part of fiduciary relationship, the bench said.

The issue was raised before the commission by Surinder Kumar, an ex-servicemen from Kapurthala, who had appeared in the competitive examination for the post of Inspector, Excise and Taxation, Punjab.

Dissatisfied with the result, he had filed an RTI application, seeking copies of individual answersheets of the nine selected ex-servicemen. However, the PIO declined his request saying answerbooks were personal information of the candidate.

The University Institute of Applied Management Sciences (UIAMS), Panja University (PU), which had conducted the examination, submitted to the information panel that institutions established by the Constitution of India, like UPSC, or those set up by any law, like Staff Selection Commissions, or established mainly to conduct examinations and have their own regulations and rules are not covered under the RTI Act.

But the commission said, “Legally, the answersheets are the property of the Department of Excise and Taxation, which is a public authority, and PU is only an agent, paid for the services.