Times
of India: Surat: Wednesday, 06 May 2015.
A Bachelor of
Arts student of Veer Narmad South Gujarat University (VNSGU) has been fighting
to get a copy of his answer book for the last two years under the Right to
Information Act (RTI). The student had received poor marks in the examination
of one subject. He was confident that he had done well and so demanded the copy
of the answer book by filing an RTI application in 2013. However, the
university refused to give him the copy and is yet to process the order of
Gujarat Information Commission (GIC), which had asked it to hand over the copy
of answer book to the student.
GIC had on
April 13 ordered VNSGU's public information officer (PIO) J R Mehta and
appellate authority, Dakshesh Thakar to give the copy of the answer book to the
student within 21 days. However, VNSGU has not given the copy to the student
until Monday. TOI possesses a copy of the GIC order.
VNSGU had
announced in 2014 that it will give answer book copies to all its students
against payment of fees. However, this decision was never implemented due to
internal politics.
Ritesh Patel,
a resident of Navsari, had appeared in the fourth semester examination of BA in
March 2013. He got 57 marks in English as against his expectation of 60.
"My overall percentage was 60 in the fourth semester of BA and I expected
to get above 60 marks in English too. I requested the university to give me a
copy of the checked answer book under RTI Act," Patel said.
"I
expected to get better marks as in the past I have been a victim of wrong
evaluation. I failed in a subject in third semester and I applied for
rechecking. I cleared the subject after rechecking. This had made me to demand
a copy of my answer book. However, the university refused to give me the
copy," Patel added.
The
university PIO told Patel that the VNSGU is yet to start giving copies of
checked answer books to all its students on payment of fees. A final decision
on it has not been taken, so he can't be given the copy of the answer book by
the university, the PIO informed him. The student approached appellate
authority of VNSGU and upon refusal from there too, he approached the GIC.
VNSGU PIO and
registrar, J R Mehta, was not available for his comments. "The decision to
give a copy to the student has been taken, but due to some administrative delay
it must not have been sent as yet. I will ensure that the student gets it at
the earliest," said Dakshesh Thakar, vice-chancellor and appellate
authority at VNSGU.
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