Addressing the issue of faulty master transcript used in examination through RTI
14 Mar, 2013Background
The appellant had appeared in the Stenographers Grade C and D examination conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC). Later he filed an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act with the SSC seeking copy of his evaluated answer sheet. He also wanted to know whether he had passed the skill test in the course of that examination. The Public Information Officer (PIO) provided a copy of the OMR answer sheet and informed him that he had not qualified the skill test.
Proceedings
During the hearing before the Central Information Commission (CIC), the appellant pointed out that the master transcript which had been dictated during the skill test contained several passages one of which appeared twice. The appellant also showed the master transcript and pointed out that the paragraph had been dictated only once and not twice and consequently the candidates had typed it only once whereas the answer sheets had been evaluated against the defective master transcript containing the same paragraph twice. He also argued that as per the guidelines issued by the SSC, the transcript should contain nearly 800 words whereas the copy given to him contains more than 900 words and it is impossible for anybody to type at the desired speed as indicated in the guidelines.
View of CIC
The Commission perused the master transcript submitted by the appellant and observed that it is unlikely that the master transcript extracted from the address of the Minister in the Parliament would contain the same paragraph twice unless it had been done deliberately. The CIC held that the original master transcript from which dictation was given during the skill test should be provided, so that the appellant would be clear if it indeed contained two separate paragraphs with the same text. The CIC directed the PIO to provide a certified / attested copy of the original transcript to the appellant.
Citation: Mr. Rahul Kapoor v. Staff Selection Commission in File No. CIC/SM/A/2012/001664
RTI Citation : RTIFI/2013/CIC/1119
Click here to view original RTI order of Court / Information Commission