New Delhi, October 13: Upholding the adjudication passed by the Central Information Commission (CIC) earlier this year, the Delhi High Court has instructed Delhi University (DU) to share examination answer sheets with students under RTI. Under the current system of DU, the students are required to pay Rs. 750 for the revaluation of an answer sheet. The order shows the way to many students who chose to gain access to their answer sheets through an RTI rather than paying the fee. The fee charged by the university has been an issue of discussion for some time now. As per the university’s reply to an earlier RTI, it had earned Rs. 2,89,12,310 for revaluation of answer sheets between the sessions of 2015 and 2018.
Order on 2016 case
The order has come with respect to a case that goes back to 2016, when a former law student of the university filed an RTI seeking access to his answer sheets. As the matter was not sorted even after two years, the student finally decided to approach the CIC. The CIC gave its adjudication on June 18th this year. Going in favour of the student, it ordered DU to allow him to inspect his answer sheets. The CIC had referred to Section 29(j) of the Right to Information Act which is regarding “larger public interest”.
The University had challenged the CIC order in High Court and requested for a stay on it. The university argued that allowing inspection of answer sheets under RTI “would render their existing mechanisms of providing hard copies, redundant”. However, in its recent order, the court refused to put a stay on the order passed by CIC. It has been clarified by the court that it has not stayed the impunged CIC order and inspection of the answer sheet shall be provided as directed.
Although, it has also been mentioned in the court order that the question of whether a student has the right to seek his/her answer sheets would be considered on the next date. The final hearing on this matter is reserved for January 30, 2019.