Will RTI help students access answersheets?
Anahita Mukherji I TNN
Mumbai: With both university and board exams round the corner, here’s a question that’s foremost on the minds of students across the country. Once the results are out, are boards and universities bound to show students their answer scripts under the Right to Information (RTI) Act? “Yes they can, but no they may not’’ pretty much sums up the answer. TOI wades through a series of contradictory orders across the country in a bid to figure out what’s going on.
In 2007, a full Bench of the Central Information Commission passed a combined order on cases regarding the disclosure of answer sheets for various exams, including CBSE and public exams for posts in the Lok Sabha and the railways.
On the one hand, the order talks of how the RTI Act aims to provide transparency, and that all bodies controlled or substantially financed by the government are under the purview of the Act. At no point does the order state that answersheets fall under Section 8 of the Act, which enlists grounds for denying information. But the order takes a dramatic U-turn when it comes to the CBSE board, and says that it has the right to deny students a view of their corrected answer sheets, as the CBSE conducts exams on a large scale, and such a disclosure would render the system unworkable. According to the order, the CBSE has an established system which is as foolproof as can be, and the board’s own rules prohibit disclosure of answersheets.
But the Bench passed a contrary order for exams conducted by public authorities to fill vacant posts. For these exams, candidates can be shown their answer papers as a general rule, says the order, adding that each case will have to be viewed individually to ensure that the disclosure of exam papers doesn’t render the system unworkable.
Shailesh Gandhi, an information commissioner with the Central Information Commission, had asked for a review of the order last year.
An expert in the RTI Act, who wishes to remain anonymous, is critical of this judgment. “With regard to CBSE, the order is not based on any legal grounds and is unable to prove that answersheets fall under Section 8 of the Act, where disclosure can be denied. Instead, it says that disclosure will render the system unworkable. But this is not for the information commission to comment on. If the board can dig out individual answer papers for re-evaluation, why can’t it send photocopies of these papers to the students?’’ says the expert.
The good news is that the various state information commissions are not bound by the order passed by the central commission. In July 2008, Pune information commissioner Vijay Kuvalekar passed an order directing the Maharashtra state board of education to allow students an inspection of their SSC/HSC answer papers. The order was challenged by the state board in the high court, which stayed it.
Meanwhile, a student of Kolkata’s Presidency College was denied an inspection of his university answer sheets by the state public information commissioner. His low scores at the university exams hampered his selection at some of India’s premier institutes for a PhD. The Calcutta high court overturned the order passed by the state information commissioner and directed Calcutta University to show the student his answer papers. The case is now pending in the SC.
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