Postnoon: Heyderabad: Thursday, March 29, 2012.
Sekhar Babu whose roots are traced to Macherla town is a father of two bright children, but his passion for science defines him better. He was bitten by the science bug in his school days. He secured a state rank in his board exams in 1997.
With the same passion he wrote his group-one prelims exams and in the very first attempt he cleared it. Soon after, he gave his mains in June 2009. Sure of a great score he planned his future. But shock was in store for him. Sekhar received a low score. He was aghast.
Recalling the painful affair, Sekhar Babu said, “There are five papers in group I exams. In the first three papers, I was given the same score which is very unusual. The fourth paper was science and I was expecting a minimum score of 135 but I was shocked when I saw my score. I had secured only 62 marks. This is when I got a big doubt and wanted to see my answer sheet,” recalls Sekhar Babu.
Doubting that something was wrong with the way his paper was evaluated, Sekhar approached the State’s public service commission (APPSC) through Right to Information (RTI). All his attempts through the RTI to get a photocopy of his answer sheet failed. Each time the APPSC refused to comply and did not show him his paper.
Within three months, he applied for the first appeal hearing with the information commission. After a long wait of two years, on June 15, 2011, his case got a hearing date.
With the information commission ordering the APPSC to show him photocopies of his Group-I mains answer scripts, gave Sekhar some hope. He had by then spent more than two years waiting as well as hard earned money. However, the APPSC turned down the order and also shot back a letter to Jannat Husain, chief information commissioner (CIC) for AP, stating that it is not “feasible to comply with the order.”
Dissatisfied with the reply, Sekhar Babu approached the Supreme Court. Last week, the SC gave its verdict and asked the APPSC to give the petitioner a photo copy of his answer sheet.
Despite this, the APPSC isn’t giving Sekhar his answer copy. “What the APPSC is doing is extremely baseless and stupid. I have spent more than four years and have invested thousands of rupees. Information commission is regarded as a highly respected commission. How can the APPSC deny its orders? Apart from court or SC, no other body can challenge the information commission,” complains Sekhar.
As a last resort, Sekhar has sent his demand of penalty of Rs.3 cores to the information commission, which will send this to the APPSC and deal with the issue. “Three days back, I got a notification from the information commission, this is my final hope,” he says.
RTI activists also believe that this is the best solution for him. “The HC has asked the information commission to deal with the issue and they have all the powers to deal with it. However, like last time, this time the commission needs to be firm and should use the powers vested in it,” says RTI activist CJ Karira.
This truly an example of how weak the system is, state RTI activists. “The commission does not understand the power it has. It’s time they woke up,” says Kariri. Despite several attempts, the commission and the APPSC remained unavailable for comment.
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