Times
of India: Chandigarh: Friday, 24 July 2015.
The Punjab
and Haryana high court on Thursday issued a notice to the Army's Ambala
recruiting office for denying a copy of the answersheet and the merit list to
an aspirant of soldier's post under the RTI Act. Disappointed after not getting
selected into the Army, despite performing well in the examination, the
candidate had sought copies of his answersheet and the merit list relating to
the written test for recruitment.
However,
Army's Ambala-based recruiting office not only denied the answersheet but also
didn't give the merit list on the grounds of being it "the professional
secrets or intellectual property of Army".
The
petitioner, through his counsel Pardeep Rapria, argued before the high court
that in April 2014, he had appeared in the final stage of written test after
qualifying the physical fitness and medical tests. When his name did not appear
in the final selection list, he had sought details of the final result, which
were denied.
The counsel
for the petitioner said that the disclosure of the information sought by the
petitioner relates to the basic standard of 'transparency' and
'competitiveness' to contain corruption and opaqueness in the recruitment
process for any government job. He also submitted that it was a right of every
candidate to seek the complete details relating to the recruitment process.
"The disclosure of such information will curb the corruption,
irregularities and malpractices in the recruitment process in the government
jobs," he argued in the court.
Hearing the
pleas, Justice Ajay Tewari issued a notice to public information officer (PIO)
of the Army recruiting office, Ambala Cantonment to file a reply on
petitioner's contentions by October 19.
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