Outlook India: New Delhi: Tuesday, October 02,
2018.
In what could be a big relief to students
seeking inspection of their answer-sheets through RTI, the Delhi High Court has
ordered the Delhi University to allow the inspection of answer-sheet to a
former student under RTI by refusing to stay the CIC order against which the
varsity had approached the court.
The high court in an order issued on
September 24 refused to grant the stay asked for by the university against a
Central Information Commission (CIC) order, according to which it was to allow
the inspection of the answer-sheet to a student who had sought it under an RTI
provision.
The order, in effect, paves the way for a
number of such students who may have chosen the RTI route for checking their
copies instead of paying a fee to the university.
"It is clarified that this court has
not stayed the impugned order dated June 18, 2018 (the CIC order) and
inspection of the evaluated answer-sheet shall be provided... as directed.
"The question whether a student has
any right to seek inspection of his/her answer-sheets will be considered on the
next date," the court said in its order.
A former law student of the university
had sought the inspection of his answer-sheets through an RTI in 2016, but the
matter dragged on for two years, forcing him to approach the intervention of
the CIC.
The CIC adjudicated in favour of the
student, ordering the Delhi University to allow him the inspection of his
answer copy as prescribed under Section 2(j) of the Right to Information Act in "larger public interest" .
The Delhi University, which under the
current system charges a fee Rs 1,000
for revaluation of a single copy and Rs 750 for its rechecking from the
students, challenged the CIC order in the court and asked for a stay on it,
contending that allowing the inspection under RTI "would render their
existing mechanism of providing hard copies...redundant".
The final hearing on the matter is
reserved for January 30 next year.
had earlier reported that the Delhi
University earned over Rs 3 crore in fees paid by students for either
revaluation or rechecking their answer-sheets and for providing photocopies of
answer-sheets to them between 2015-16 and 2017-18.
According to the information provided by
the university under RTI, it earned Rs 2,89,12,310 for revaluation alone
between 2015-16 and 2017-18.
During the same period, it earned Rs
23,29,500 for rechecking and Rs 6,49,500 for providing students copies of
answer-scripts evaluated.
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