Guwahati, May 23: The Board of Secondary Education, Assam, will move Gauhati High Court to scrap the State Information Commission’s order that allows students to see their answer scripts under the Right to Information Act.
The state information commissioner, B.K. Gohain, issued an order on July 4 last year which said in any public examination, whether conducted by the universities, SEBA, Assam Higher Secondary Education Council or Assam Public Service Commission, the candidates must be equipped with photocopies of the answer scripts if they apply under the RTI.
The secretary of the SEBA, Dhanadev Mahanta, told The Telegraph that the board had given out photocopies of the answer scripts for the past two years.
However, it was not possible to continue, as the exercise disrupted the normal functioning of the board.
He said the board was consulting legal experts and would file a petition before the high court after the High School Certificate Examination 2010 results were declared.
“Lakhs of students appear every year for the HSLC and Assam High Madrassa (AHM) examinations conducted by SEBA. After the results, nearly 50 per cent candidates apply for photocopies of their answer scripts, hoping to get more marks,” Mahanta said.
Thousands of candidates also apply for a re-scrutiny to check if all the answers were evaluated and the marks added correctly.
“The entire exercise takes a lot of time, energy and manpower, which SEBA cannot afford. Such exercises often disrupt the process of holding the HSLC examination. There have been instances when the board was dragged to the court unnecessarily by candidates. Similar things are going to happen this time and so the board will approach the high court and seek an exemption,” the board secretary said.
Nearly four lakh students appeared in the HSLC and AHM examinations 2010 and the results will be announced on Saturday.
The information commission gave the order after four candidates who could not clear the main examination of the Combined Competitive Examination, 2006, approached the commission to see their answer scripts as they suspected manipulation and foul play during evaluation.
The APSC holds the exam to recruit candidates for the Assam Civil Service.
“The APSC, however, refused to abide by the commission’s order. The four candidates then approached the high court against the APSC. The court upheld the commission’s order in its verdict on November 6, 2009. So SEBA is now legally bound to approach the high court if it wants an exemption,” a lawyer said.
The lawyer said it would be tough for SEBA to convince the high court about the exemption. He said Calcutta High Court last year held that agencies conducting exams were bound to show the answer scripts if an examinee demands it under the RTI Act, 2005.
The act makes citizens eligible to receive documented information up to 20 years old.
“The commission’s order was basically delivered in relation to the case of four candidates against the APSC. But the commission made it applicable to all such cases where public examinations are conducted. There is a huge difference between finding the answer scripts of four candidates and giving photocopies to the thousands who apply for the same in case of the HSLC examination,” Mahanta said.
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