ETV Bharat: New Delhi: Wednesday, 17 June 2026.
The CIC advised UPSC to proactively disclose merit lists, marks, and candidate names to enhance transparency
The Central Information
Commission has advised the UPSC to proactively disclose category-wise merit
lists, marks and names of selected candidates in recruitment examinations,
saying transparency is crucial in the appointment process.
The Central Information Commission (CIC) passed the direction while deciding an appeal filed by a candidate, who sought his interview marks and the waiting list for the post of deputy director (planning/statistics) in the planning department of the Delhi government.
Information Commissioner Jaya Varma Sinha noted that "the need for transparency is more in the case of appointment/recruitment" and advised the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) under Section 25(5) of the RTI Act to place relevant information from all stages of recruitment in the public domain.
The Commission recommended that the UPSC publish "names of the selected candidates, category wise merit list arranged with sequence beginning with the unreserved category, followed by all reserved categories (SC, ST, OBC, PwD) along with their marks, sequence of filling the posts with respect to current or backlog vacancies in public domain" on its website so that citizens have "minimum resort to the use of the RTI Act to obtain the information".
The CIC also pulled up the UPSC over an erroneous RTI response. The appellant was initially denied his interview marks after officials mistakenly linked his request to another candidate involved in pending litigation.
"The Commission admonishes the respondent public authority for committing such blatant errors while replying under the RTI Act," the order said.
On the denial of the waiting list under Section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act, the Commission observed that "the term 'confidential' by itself is not an exemption" under the law. It said the authorities cannot deny information merely by labelling it confidential and must demonstrate how a disclosure would harm the competitive position of a third party.
Holding the denial of waiting list information to be "unsustainable in law and contrary to the spirit of transparency mandated under the RTI Act", the CIC directed the central public information officer (CPIO) to provide the required information to the appellant.
The CIC advised UPSC to proactively disclose merit lists, marks, and candidate names to enhance transparency
The Central Information Commission (CIC) passed the direction while deciding an appeal filed by a candidate, who sought his interview marks and the waiting list for the post of deputy director (planning/statistics) in the planning department of the Delhi government.
Information Commissioner Jaya Varma Sinha noted that "the need for transparency is more in the case of appointment/recruitment" and advised the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) under Section 25(5) of the RTI Act to place relevant information from all stages of recruitment in the public domain.
The Commission recommended that the UPSC publish "names of the selected candidates, category wise merit list arranged with sequence beginning with the unreserved category, followed by all reserved categories (SC, ST, OBC, PwD) along with their marks, sequence of filling the posts with respect to current or backlog vacancies in public domain" on its website so that citizens have "minimum resort to the use of the RTI Act to obtain the information".
The CIC also pulled up the UPSC over an erroneous RTI response. The appellant was initially denied his interview marks after officials mistakenly linked his request to another candidate involved in pending litigation.
"The Commission admonishes the respondent public authority for committing such blatant errors while replying under the RTI Act," the order said.
On the denial of the waiting list under Section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act, the Commission observed that "the term 'confidential' by itself is not an exemption" under the law. It said the authorities cannot deny information merely by labelling it confidential and must demonstrate how a disclosure would harm the competitive position of a third party.
Holding the denial of waiting list information to be "unsustainable in law and contrary to the spirit of transparency mandated under the RTI Act", the CIC directed the central public information officer (CPIO) to provide the required information to the appellant.
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