Marks awarded to the appellant, separately, in the written test and in the interview were refused on the ground that the UPSC had a policy not to disclose the marks separately - CIC: policy framed by the UPSC cannot override the provisions of the RTI Act
2 Sep, 2013Order
1. The Appellant had appeared for the examination for recruitment to the post of Public Prosecutor in the CBI. He had wanted to know the marks awarded to him, separately, in the written test and in the interview. The CPIO had provided him with his total marks and had refused to give the separate marks on the ground that the UPSC had a policy not to disclose the marks separately. Not satisfied with this order, the Appellant had preferred an appeal. The Appellate Authority had disposed of the appeal and had upheld the decision of the CPIO.
2. The Appellant submitted during the hearing that he should be provided with the marks separately under both the heads. The UPSC has a policy not to disclose the marks under separate heads but only to communicate the total marks. Based on this policy, the CPIO has already provided the total marks to the Appellant. We, however, do not agree with the reasoning given by the Appellate Authority. The policy framed by the UPSC cannot override the provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The RTI Act does not recognise any such policy framed by any public authority as a ground for not disclosing any information. Only that information can be exempted from disclosure which is covered by the various exemption provisions given in the RTI Act itself. If the marks awarded in the written test and interview are maintained separately in the records of the UPSC, that information has to be given. Therefore, we direct the CPIO to provide to the Appellant within 10 working days of receiving this order the marks awarded to him in the course of this examination separately for the written test and interview.
3. The appeal is disposed off accordingly.
(Satyananda Mishra)
Chief Information Commissioner
Citation: Sh. Omprakash Sharma v. Union Public Service Commission in File No.CIC/SM/A/2013/000635