The Delhi High Court has rejected the plea of a Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) aspirant seeking disclosure of his answer sheets of all seven papers of the main examination along with their model answers under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The court stated that the answer sheets can only be disclosed if the public interest requires such a disclosure.
A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad dismissed the aspirant's appeal against an order of the single judge turning down the same.
“This court does not find any reason to interfere with the order of the learned single judge. Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed along with the pending applications, if any," the court said in a recent order.
The appellant, who is an engineering graduate, appeared for Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2020 and cleared the same and then appeared for the Mains Examination and was declared unsuccessful, said a report by PTI.
Following this, he filed an RTI application to see his answer sheets along with a copy of the model answers. He contended before the court that there was no reason why he should be denied access to his own answer sheets and marks obtained by him in the Civil Services Examination.
The court maintained that as per the top court order, the information sought with regard to marks in the Civil Services Exam cannot be directed to be furnished mechanically.
The quality of assessment standards would also suffer, it said.
