Raw and scaled marks of civil services prelims to be disclosed
17 Jul, 2012A bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw of the Delhi High Court has directed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to disclose the marks obtained by candidates in the civil services preliminary examination 2010.
The RTI applications filed by many civil service aspirants seeking their preliminary scores were rejected by the UPSC. The appellants filed a petition seeking the details of marks (raw and scaled marks) obtained by the selected candidates in their respective optional subjects of the Civil Services Preliminary Examination, 2010 in the Delhi High Court. The single judge bench of the Delhi High Court directed to disclose the marks of the successful candidates in the 2010 preliminary exam against which the UPSC filed an appeal. The UPSC argued that raw marks are an intermediary stage and ought not to be treated as information. It was further argued that only after scaling / actualization, the marks scored be can be computed and UPSC is not liable to disclose the raw marks.
The division bench directed the UPSC to disclose the marks of all the candidates including the unsuccessful ones within eight weeks. The High Court held, "An 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 the scaling method adopted is a must…. We are even otherwise of the view that there could be no secrecy or confidentiality about the method of scaling/ actualisation adopted by an examiner. The very objective of the RTI Act is transparency and accountability. The counsel for the UPSC has been unable to show as to how the disclosure of the scaling/ actualisation method prejudices the examination or affects it competitiveness."
The High Court also held that though the non-disclosure of the method devised for scaling / actualisation till declaration of the result may be justified, it cannot be said to be justified after the result is declared.