Central Information Commission
Kavita Ramchandra Satav vs Ministry Of Railways on 10 August, 2017
क यसूचनाआयोग
CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION
लब बि डंग (पो टऑ फसकेपास)
Club Building (Near Post Office)
ओ डजेनयूकपस , नई!द ल -110067
Old JNU Campus, New Delhi-110067
Tel: +91-11-26182593/26182594
Email: [email protected]
File No.: CIC/RK/A/2016/000946/Morly-AB
In the matter of:
Kavita Ramchandra Satav
501, 5th floor, Kalapataru Building, Kanpur
Village Road, Indira Gandhi Nagar, Kanpur
Mumbai - 400042 ...Appellant
Vs.
Central Public Information Officer
PIO / Asstt. Secretary
Railway Recruitment Board, Mumbai
Western Railway, DRM Office Compound,
Mumbai Central, Mumbai - 400008 ...Respondent
Dates
RTI application : 07.01.2015
CPIO reply : 17.08.2015
First Appeal : 07.09.2015
FAA Order : 13.10.2015
Second Appeal : 12.01.2016
Date of hearing : 26.07.2017
Facts:
The appellant vide his RTI application dated 07.01.2015 sought copy of his corrected aptitude test answer sheet for the post of Assistant Station Master for which the recruitment examination was held on 20.03.2015. The CPIO replied on 17.08.2015. The appellant being aggrieved filed first appeal on 07.09.2015. The First Appellate Authority (FAA) on 13.10.2015 disposed of the first appeal. The appellant on being aggrieved filed second appeal before this Commission on 12.01.2016.
Grounds for Second Appeal The CPIO did not provide the desired information.
1
Order
Appellant : Present
Respondent : PIO, Shri Padmanabhan, Asstt.Transport Mgr.
During the hearing the respondent PIO relied on the Delhi High Court decision in WP(C) 2173/2013&CM4120/2013 dated 21.11.14 and submitted that the copy of the appellant's corrected test answer sheet in the aptitude test cannot be disclosed as per the ratio of the above quoted decision.
The decision dated 21.11.2014 of the Delhi High Court in the case of Ministry of Railways vs K.G. Arun Kumar is extracted below:
"The petitioner impugns an order dated 18.10.2012 passed by the Central Information Commission (hereafter ?CIC?), inter alia, directing that the respondent be permitted to inspect the answer sheets and also be provided the question papers with respect to the tests undertaken by the respondent.
The controversy to be addressed is whether the petitioner is entitled to withhold the question papers of the written test as well as answer sheets and question papers of aptitude test taken by respondent.
Briefly stated the facts are that the respondent had undertaken an aptitude test and written examination for being selected to the post of Assistant Station Master? (ASM) with the petitioner. The written examination was held on 13.06.2010 and the petitioner was selected for aptitude test which was conducted on 03.02.2011. According to the petitioner, he had faired well and thus, ought to have been selected. However, the petitioner was not among the final candidates selected for the appointment. Thereafter, the respondent filed applications under Right to Information Act, 2005 (hereafter the Act) seeking information relating to the written examination as well as the aptitude test. By an application dated 09.06.2011, the petitioner sought information including the following information:-
(i) Copies of answer sheets and question of Aptitude test of mine and other 37 candidates who were all selected as per the final list, with the key used for evaluation.2
(ii) Copies of answer sheets and question papers of written test of mine and other 37 candidates who were all selected as per the final list, with the key used for evaluation.
In response to the aforesaid application dated 09.06.2011, the Assistant Public Information Officer (hereafter APIO) sent a response on 21.06.2011 permitting the respondent to inspect his answer sheets of the written examination but denied the answer sheets and the question papers of the aptitude test. Aggrieved by the denial of information by APIO, respondent filed an appeal before the First Appellate Authority (hereafter FAA) which was rejected on 07.07.2011. Thereafter, the respondent preferred a second appeal before the CIC. The said appeal was disposed of by the order dated 18.10.2012.
The learned counsel for the petitioner contended that psychological tests are designed to test the mental aptitude for safety category staff necessary for safety on the Indian Railways. It was further submitted that the aptitude tests, question papers and the OMR sheets are reused in different examinations conducted by Railway Recruitment Board and a disclosure of the aptitude question papers would effectively destroy the ability of the petitioner to use the aptitude question papers in future examinations. It is further submitted that it takes several years to design an aptitude test and the petitioner would be prejudiced if the respondent is provided such information.
It was further contended by the learned counsel for the petitioner that even the copies of the question papers of the written examinations ought not be provided since the number of questions were limited and the same are also used in different tests.
The controversy whether an examining body can be asked to disclose the question papers in circumstances where the number of questions arelimited and are repeated, has been considered by this court in National Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Shri MSF Beig:
W.P.(C) No.272/2012 decided on 20.11.2014 and it has been held that in such cases, the examining body cannot be compelled to disclose the question papers. Accordingly, the present writ petition is allowed and the CIC's order directing the petitioner to provide copy of question papers or provide OMR sheets is rejected. However, the petitioner would be entitled to inspect his answer sheets for the written 3 examination which the learned counsel for the respondent states has already been provided to the respondent."
In the light of the above decision, and based on the CPIO's submission that the question paper and answer sheet related to the same is related to the aptitude test held for selecting candidates for the post of Assistant Station Master and that the question papers source their origin from a limited question bank the disclosure of which can jeopardise the pattern of questions asked in the said aptitude test, the Commission finds it appropriate to direct the PIO to state on affidavit that the information sought by the applicant is part of a limited question bank the disclosure of which may compromise the basic integrity of the concerned question bank. The same affidavit is to be submitted to the Commission within 10 days from the receipt of this order and a copy thereof is to be endorsed to the appellant for information. The CPIO is however, directed to permit the appellant to inspect the copy of his own corrected aptitude test answer sheet for the above stated examination.
Keeping in view the submission of the PIO and the Delhi High Court decision, the Commission understands the sensitivity of the matter and is hereby instructing the PIO to ensure that the appellant while inspecting his answer-sheet does not take photograph or obtain hard/soft copy of the same.
The appellant is also advised to follow the above instructions while inspecting his answersheet.
With the above direction, the appeal is disposed of.
Copies of the order be sent to both the parties free of cost.
[Amitava Bhattacharyya] Information Commissioner Authenticated true copy (A.K. Talapatra) Deputy Registrar 4