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8. Per contra Mr. Vaibhav Kalra, Advocate for the respondent no.1 University argued:-

(i) that the respondent no.1 University has now started giving inspection of the OMR answer sheets and the answer key;
(ii) that the entrance examination comprises of multiple choice questions of which there is not much choice and which are limited in number;
(iii) that if the examinees are allowed to carry away the question papers from the examination hall, the said question papers would be published and the aspirants for the next year‟s examination would be in the know thereof;

10. We have considered the rival contentions.

11. As far as the reliance by the counsel for the respondent no.1 University on the judgment of the Division Bench of the Bombay High Court in Nirav Deepak Jobanputra supra is concerned, the same relates to the pre RTI era and is clearly not in sync with the subsequent judgments cited by the father of the appellant. Reliance thereon is thus misconceived.

12. As far as rule/policy of the respondent no.1 University of not allowing the examinees to take away the question papers from the examination hall is concerned, the Supreme Court in Shaunak H. Satya supra has held that question papers may not be disclosable before the examination is held but the position will be different once the examination has been held. However the contention of the respondent no.1 University is that the question papers are not disclosable at all, not even after the result of the examination has been declared. The reason given therefor is of the number of multiple choice questions which can be asked being limited and exhausting themselves if not in one year, in two or three years and the necessity of repeating the said questions and the disclosure and publication thereof prejudicing the following years‟ examination. It is thus not a question of the question papers being not disclosable till the declaration of the result of the examination only.

14. On the contrary here we are concerned with the examinee himself and examination to the admission to the MBBS course. The candidates appearing for the MBBS entrance examination are students who have appeared in or have passed the Class XIIth examination held by the CBSE or other boards of examination. It can safely be argued that they cannot be tested beyond the curriculum prescribed for Class XIIth. To our knowledge, no secrecy is maintained with respect to Class XIIth board examination question papers which the examinees are allowed to carry away with them after the examination. Of course Class XIIth board examination does not comprise only of multiple choice questions and also comprises of subjective questions. However we have wondered that when there is no such fear as is expressed with respect to the Class XIIth board examination and when question papers therefor can be set year after year, why the same cannot be done for the MBBS entrance examination. The course content for the MBBS entrance examination and the possible questions even if of multiple choice variety cannot fall in a narrow domain, as in an examination for a super specialty course in medicine. No explanation in this regard has been given in the counter affidavit of the respondent no.1 University or was given at the time of hearing. We do not even know whether the matter has been considered by the experts of the respondent no.1 University in this light. We find it very hard to believe that the stock of questions even of multiple choice for testing the merit for admission to MBBS is limited. The same does not speak very well of the innovative powers of the setters of the said question papers.

20. The father of the appellant during the hearing handed over to us the question papers of All India Pre-Medical Test held for admission to MBBS and also comprising of multiple choice questions and the question paper of IIT JEE (Main) and IIT JEE (Advanced) again comprising of multiple choice questions as well as the Notification of the CBSE about the display of images of OMR answer sheets on the website.

21. We are of the opinion that if the other Universities also holding entrance examination to the MBBS course comprising of multiple choice questions are not preventing their students from carrying away the question papers from the examination hall or are providing copies of the answer key and the answer sheets then there is no reason for the respondent no.1 University to take a different stand, particularly when no reason therefor is given. The very fact that different Universities holding separate examination to entrance to their MBBS course are able to come up with different question papers year after year belies the contention of the respondent no.1 University of the stock of questions being limited. We may also take note of the fact that most of the students appearing for the entrance examination to the MBBS course in the respondent no.1 University would also be appearing in the entrance examination held by Delhi University as well as by other Universities outside Delhi and which examinations would be held on different dates, some before the entrance examination of the respondent no.1 University and some after. If the choice of questions is limited, we fail to see as to how secrecy can be maintained after other Universities have held their examinations.