TMI Blog2015 (5) TMI 1175X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e petitioner can be granted in the present case. The respondent No. 1 University directed to review its policy/rules/regulations qua question papers, answer key and OMR answer sheets of the student concerned - Appeal allowed. - LPA No. 543/2014 and CM No. 13601/2014 - - - Dated:- 7-5-2015 - G. Rohini and Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, JJ. For Appellant: Jeet Singh Mann For Respondents: Vaibhav Kalra, Adv. JUDGMENT Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, 1. This intra-court appeal impugns the order dated 6th August, 2014 of the learned Single Judge of this Court of dismissal of W.P.(C) No. 4940/2014 preferred by the appellant. 2. The appellant had appeared in the Common Entrance Test held by the respondent No. 1 University for admission of its MBBS course to the year 2014-15 and after successfully qualifying Stage-I of the examination, appeared in Stage-II and was ranked at No. 3631 with 75 out of 150 marks in Botany and 63 out of 150 marks in the subject of Zoology. Being not satisfied with the marks awarded to him in the said two subjects, he applied under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) for the copies of the Optical Mark Reader (OMR) answer sheets, question paper ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nt is not entitled to raise grievance in that respect; (iii) that the respondent No. 1 University in the brochure, published of admission process itself had provided that the examinees will have to handover their OMR answer sheet along with the question paper before leaving the examination hall; thus the appellant was well aware about the practice and rule of the respondent No. 1 University; (iv) that as per the admission brochure, the examinees were not even allowed to note down the questions from the question paper; (v) that the respondent No. 1 University has been following the practice/policy of not handing over/providing the question papers since the very beginning, with an objective to ensure that the pattern, style and type of questions which are limited are not known to the aspiring future candidates prior to the examination - this is done to streamline the selection process so as to give admission to the more meritorious students; (vi) the said practice of not allowing the examinees to carry the question booklet post examination is a uniform policy adopted by the respondent No. 1 University with respect to all programmes/courses in which it conducts entranc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... (a) judgment dated 13th July, 2012 of the Division Bench of this Court in LPA No. 229/2011 titled Union Public Service Commission v. Angesh Kumar holding that there can be no secrecy or confidentiality about the raw marks and the method of scaling/actualization adopted by an examiner and that the objective of RTI Act is transparency and accountability. It was further held that examinee is entitled to satisfy himself/herself as to the fairness and transparency of the examination and the selection procedure and to maintain such fairness and transparency, disclosure of raw marks, cut off marks and scaling method adopted is a must; (b) judgment dated 2nd September, 2013 of Single Judge of this Court in W.P.(C) No. 4953/2013 titled Raj Kumar Jha v. University of Delhi, on a conspectus several dicta of the Supreme Court holding, that it would be unfair to penalize the students for not giving an answer which accords with the key answer when the key answer is demonstrated to be wrong and that the student community could not be made to suffer on account of errors committed by the University; (c) Alka Matoria v. Maharaja Ganga Singh University AIR 2013 Raj. 126 (DB), following t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ltiple choice questions of which there is not much choice and which are limited in number; (iii) that if the examinees are allowed to carry away the question papers from the examination hall, the said question papers would be published and the aspirants for the next year's examination would be in the know thereof; (iv) that the questions in the next year's entrance examination are likely to be the same, thereby reducing the efficacy of the examination; and, (v) if not so, the questions will exhaust themselves over a period of two/three years and once the question papers of two/three years are published, the questions in the future examination would be out of those only and which would be to the knowledge of the students taking examinations thereafter. Reliance was placed on Nirav Deepak Jobanputra v. State of Maharashtra where the refusal to supply question paper on the ground of secrecy was upheld observing that the students do not have a right to demand the question paper and they do not have right to be part of the evaluation systems of their performance or to verify the correctness of the evaluation made by the examiners and certain amount of secrecy and con ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... with correct answers may lead to selection of a student with good memory rather than an analytical mind and that setting up of such question papers besides intellectual efforts also entailed expenditure and the possibility of AIIMS, in a given year cutting the said expenditure by picking up questions from its question bank. However what distinguishes the present situation from Vikrant Bhuria is that Vikrant Bhuria who had sought information was not the examinee himself and the possibility of his acting at the instance of a coaching institution or a publisher and acting with the motive of making commercial gain from the information could not be ruled out. Also, the examination with which Vikrant Bhuria was concerned, was to a super specialty course in medicine and with respect whereto it was pleaded that the questions available were limited. 14. On the contrary here we are concerned with the examinee himself and examination to the admission to the MBBS course. The candidates appearing for the MBBS entrance examination are students who have appeared in or have passed the Class XIIth examination held by the CBSE or other boards of examination. It can safely be argued that they cann ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... dressed on this part but are sure there must be for the subject examination also. Not only so there are specialized coaching classes for each and every entrance examination with some of them having a very good success rate. Such coaching classes would certainly be coaching on the likely multiple choice questions in the entrance exam. 17. All this throws a lot of dust on the plea of secrecy taken by the respondent No. 1 University. 18. As far as we are aware, there is no such restriction in the examinations held for entrance to the engineering colleges. We have also wondered that when the question paper setters of the said examination can year after year come up with new and different multiple choice questions to test the skill and merit of the examinees, what is the difference in the medical entrance examination. 19. We had during the hearing enquired from the counsel for the respondent No. 1 University whether the Delhi University, also conducting the MBBS course, is also following the same policy. No answer was forthcoming. Similarly the position prevalent in other Universities also could not be stated/informed. 20. The father of the appellant during the hearing hande ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... giving inspection thereof, in as much as the reason for not supplying copies of answer sheets and answer key is the same i.e. to not thereby make the question paper public. 25. We may add, giving inspection of a document is not the same as furnishing a copy thereof. Though the RTI Act in Section 2(j), while defining right to information includes besides taking copies, also a right to inspect but Section 6(1) requires a person seeking information to specify the information sought and Section 7(9) requires the information sought to be ordinarily ..... provided in the form in which it is sought unless it would disproportionately divert the resources of the public authority or would be detrimental to the safety or preservation of the record in question. It thus follows that if the information seeker, in exercise of right of information, has sought information by furnishing copies of information, the Act mandates (Section 7(9) uses the word shall ) furnishing of information in the form of copy of the information/document and the public authority cannot say that it will furnish such information by offering inspection thereof. The only grounds on which the public authority can sa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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