Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Revealing interview marks will pose threat to lives of board members: CU

Times of India: Kozhikode: Tuesday, 13 April 2021.
Calicut University has provided a strange excuse to a Right to Information (RTI) query seeking information about interview marks awarded to candidates who attended the assistant professor interview in Malayalam department saying that revealing the interview marks would pose threat to the lives and personal safety of the interview board members.
The varsity has turned down the RTI query in this regard citing section 8(1)(g) of the RTI Act which pertains to ‘information, the disclosure of which would endanger the life or physical safety of any person or identify the source of information or assistance given in confidence for law enforcement or security purposes’.
Several candidates who had attended the assistant professor interviews had approached the varsity seeking interview marks of the selected candidates following allegations that there has been violation of norms and nepotism in the ongoing faculty appointments.
The reply to the RTI query denying the request was provided by assistant registrar K Abdul Rasaq. The varsity’s reply also mentions that the interview marks cannot be provided as it pertains to third parties.
Meanwhile, UDF-affiliated syndicate member Rasheed Ahammed P said that it was strange that the varsity has invoked a provision in the RTI Act which is not normally used to turn down an RTI query in an academic institution.
“It shows that the varsity doesn’t want the interview marks awarded to candidates to come out in public as that would expose possible violation of norms and whether the three-point criteria for awarding marks, including for research experience, ICT-enabled teaching proficiency, etc. have been followed by the interview board,” Ahammed said.
He added that interview marks of candidates do not come under the purview of confidential information as it is placed at the syndicate meeting. There have been instances of colleges and university providing the interview marks to RTI applicants before, he said.
Ahammed added that the varsity has been keeping the entire selection process under wraps and even the syndicate members have not been provided the reservation roster governing the appointments.
The Central Information Commission had earlier pulled up the authorities of the Banaras Hindu University for taking recourse to Section 8(1)(g) merely as a pretext to deny information.
The order by the CIC had said that ‘Through this order the Commission now wants to send the message loud and clear that quoting provisions of Section 8 of the RTI Act ad libitum to deny the information requested for, by CPIVs/ Appellate Authorities without giving any justification or grounds as to how these provisions are applicable is simply unacceptable and clearly amounts to malafide denial of legitimate information attracting penalties under section 20(1) of the Act.’