The New Indian Express: National: Thursday, June 21, 2018.
It's
official. A student studying under any Government-run University or College
anywhere in India can now opt to view their corrected answer sheets by applying
for it like they would file any RTI petition. The Central information
Commission (CIC), the body that governs the working of all Information Officers
within government departments and agencies, has now upheld the Supreme Court in
2016 that said that a student's exam paper was a piece of information, a manuscript,
and should be up for scrutiny.
This may
effectively sound the death knell for re-evaluation and photocopy fees which
are known to range from a few hundred rupees to Rs 1500 and more. In fact, it
was the excessive levy of this fee that led to a suit being brought before the
SC against the CBSE, eventually leading to the ruling.
You can
look it over, but not take a copy or click a photo
The Supreme
Court had ruled in the case that the examinee holds the right to check their
paper since it would fall under the ambit of "information". However, the commission stressed on the fine
distinction between inspection and receiving a certified copy of the evaluated
answer sheet. Therefore, students can now legally apply to inspect their
evaluated answer sheets and will have the chance to inspect it for free for the
first hour with a charge of five rupees for every subsequent hour.
The
Commission also trashed the excuse that the decision would make the process
cumbersome since "timely access to information is the essence of the
provisions of the RTI Act and denial of such information could prejudice a
student's future career prospects and right to their livelihood."
Universities
complain that it increases work for them
The
respondents in the case, University of Delhi, said that the decision would
hinder the mechanism that is already in place to deal with this issue. They
said the process would become cumbersome since they (the evaluation committees/
institutes) would be required to maintain two separate mechanisms one for
providing the hard copy as per their own regulation and another for inspection
of answer sheet as per the RTI Act. They were also worried that the inspection
process could lead to students taking digital images of their answer scripts.
However, the
commission felt that the issue involved a larger public interest affecting the
student's future which would affect their right to life and livelihood. The
order further noted, "The marks obtained by the student would affect their
future career prospects which in turn would ostensibly affect their life to
life and livelihood. Deprive a person of his right to livelihood and you shall
have deprived him of his life."
The
Commission also trashed the excuse that the decision would make the process cumbersome
since "timely access to information is the essence of the provisions of
the RTI Act and denial of such information could prejudice a student's future
career prospects and right to their livelihood." With regard to students
misusing the answer sheets, the commission felt that the issue can be dealt
with the appropriate public authority and that was no reason to stop the
students from gaining access to their papers.
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