TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2018 (10) TMI 1749
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...., are that the petitioner is an institution established under the provisions of Article 315 of the Constitution of India to conduct examinations for appointment of persons to various services of the State of Manipur. The MPSC conducted the MCSCC Examination, 2016 for recruitment to 82 posts of various categories like MCS Grade-II, MPS Grade-II, SDC, MSS/ Section Officers, Election Officer, etc. and after the result thereof being declared, 82 persons had been given appointment orders by the State Government. [3.2] The respondent No.2 submitted an application dated 14-06-2017 under the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (hereinafter referred to as "the RTI Act") to the SPIO/ MPSC praying for furnishing scanned copies of the answer sheets along with the marks allotted to the eighty-two selected candidates in the said examination and to provide the mark tabulation sheets of all the candidates who appeared in the said examination. In reply to the said application, the SPIO/ MPSC informed the respondent No.2 that the information sought for by her, being a third party information, cannot be divulged as per Section 11 of the RTI Act. Being aggrieved by the said letter of th....
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....mission has come to the conclusion that the public interest in disclosure outweighs the need for protection of personal information and public interest justifies disclosure of the information as per Section 8 (2) of the RTI Act. Accordingly, the Commission directed the SPIO/ MPSC to furnish the information. Being aggrieved by the said order dated 10-08-2018, the instant writ petition has been filed by the petitioner. [6] The RTI Act was enacted by the Parliament and as seen from the statement of Objects and Reasons, the purpose for which it was enacted, was to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities and to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority. In the words of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, the RTI Act was enacted to ensure smoother, greater and more effective access to information and to provide an effective framework for effectuating the right to information recognised under the Article 19 of the Constitution. Section 3 provides that all the citizens have the right to information held by or under the control of public authority....
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....son for requesting the information or any other personal details except those that may be necessary for contacting him. (3) Where an application is made to a public authority requesting for an information,- (i) which is held by another public authority; or (ii) the subject matter of which is more closely connected with the functions of another public authority, the public authority, to which such application is made. shall transfer the application or such part of it as may be appropriate to that other public authority and inform the applicant immediately about such transfer: Provided that the transfer of an application pursuant to this sub-section shall be made as soon as practicable but in no case later than five days from the date of receipt of the application. Section 8. Exemption from disclosure of information. - (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, there shall be no obligation to give any citizen; (a) information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence; (b) ....
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....blic interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to the protected interests. (3) Subject to the provisions of clauses (a), (c) and (i) of sub-section (/), any information relating to any occurrence, event or matter which has taken place, occurred or happened twenty years before the date on which any request is made under section 6 shall be provided to any person making a request under that section: Provided that where any question arises as to the date from which the said period of twenty years has to be computed, the decision of the Central Government shall be final, subject to the usual appeals provided for in this Act. Section 11. Third party information.-(1) Where a Central Public Information Officer or a State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, intends to disclose any information or record, or part thereof on a request made under this Act, which relates to or has been supplied by a third party and has been treated as confidential by that third party, the Central Public Information Officer or State Public Information Officer, as the case may be, shall, within five days from the receipt of the request, give a written notice to such third party of the request ....
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....ommission while considering the said appeal has failed to give opportunity of being heard to the 82 recommended candidates which is mandatory under Section 19(4) of the RTI Act, 2005 and therefore, the said order dated 10-08-2018 passed by it needs to be renewed; that the compliance of the said order dated 10-08-2018 may give rise to various legal complicacies as the procedure to be followed by the petitioner is not specifically directed in the said order; that the Commissioner has failed to see that before a Third Party Information is furnished, the procedure as laid down under section 11(1) and 19(4) is to be followed. In support of his contention, he has relied upon the decisions rendered by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Prashant Ramesh Chakkarwar vs. UPSC & ors., (2013) 12 SCC 489; R.K. Jain Vs. Union of India & anr., (2013) 14 SCC 794 and UPSC & ors. Vs. Angesh Kumar & ors. (2018) 4 SCC 530. On the other hand, it has been submitted by Smt. G. Pushpa, learned counsel appearing for the respondent No. 2 that the information sought for by the respondent No.2 does not come under the Third Party Information and therefore, the required procedure prescribed under Section 11(1) and 19(4....
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....ies thereof? (iii) Whether an examining body hold the evaluated answer books "in a fiduciary relationship" and consequently has no obligation to give inspection of the evaluated answer books under Section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act? (iv) If the examinee is entitled to inspection of the evaluated answer books or seek certified copies thereof, whether such right is subject to any limitations, conditions or safeguards? The Hon'ble Supreme Court after examining the objects sought to be achieved by the RTI Act, held that the evaluated answer book is an information under the RTI Act and every examinee will have the right to access his evaluated answer books, by either inspecting them or to take certified copies thereof, unless the evaluated answer books are found to the exempted under Section 8 (1)(e) of the RTI At. The decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Maharastra State Board and the subsequent decisions following the same, will not affect or interfere with the right of the examinee seeking inspection of the answer books or taking certified copies thereof. The examining body does not hold the evaluated answer books in a fiduciary relationship. Not being information available t....
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....ionship. They fairly conceded that evaluated answer books will not fall under any other exemptions in sub-section (1) of Section 8. Every examinee will have the right to access his evaluated answer books, by either inspecting them or take certified copies thereof, unless the evaluated answer books are found to be exempted under Section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act. 41. In a philosophical and very wide sense, examining bodies can be said to act in a fiduciary capacity, with reference to the students who participate in an examination, as a Government does while governing its citizens or as the present generation does with reference to the future generation while preserving the environment. But the words "information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship" are used in Section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act in its normal and well-recognised sense, that is, to refer to persons who act in a fiduciary capacity, with reference to a specific beneficiary or beneficiaries who are to be expected to be protected or benefited by the actions of the fiduciary- a trustee with reference to the beneficiary of the trust, a guardian with reference to a minor/physically infirm/mentally challenged, a p....
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.... examination, 2008, he sought for information like production of all records including attendance sheet, raw and moderated marks etc., by invoking the provisions of the Right to Information Act which was turned down by the Tribunal holding that the principle of moderation has been followed by the UPSC since 1949 and that the method cannot be faulted as subjective or unscientific. Being aggrieved by it, the appellant filed a writ petition before the Hon'ble High Court which was disposed of holding that the appellants are not entitled to relief because they had approached the Tribunal after a period of more than one year from the date of declaration of the result and the selected candidates had not been made parties. When the matter came up before the Hon'ble Supreme Court, it was of the view that the impugned order does not suffer from any illegality. It has been held that if the methodology of moderation adopted by the Commission is faulted, the entire selection will have to be quashed and that is not possible without giving opportunity of hearing to those who have been selected and appointed in different cadres. Moreover, the Hon'ble Supreme Court, referring to the portion of the ....
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....ts earlier decision rendered in Girish Ramchandra Deshpande vs. Central Information Commissioner wherein the performance of an employee/ officer in an organisation is primarily a matter between the employee and the employer and normally those aspects are governed by the service rules which fall under the expression "personal information", the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or public interest, held that as the appellant sought for inspection of the documents relating to the ACR of the Member, CESTAT, inter-alia, relating to adverse entries in the ACR and "follow-up action" taken therein on the question of integrity, there was no reason to interfere with the impugned order. In UPSC & ors. vs. Angesh Kumar case (supra), the respondents who were unsuccessful candidates in the Civil Service (Preliminary) Examination, 2010 approached the Hon'ble High Court for a direction to the UPSC to disclose the details of marks (raw and scaled) awarded to them. The learned Single Judge directed that the information sought for be provided to the respondents within 15 days and this view of the learned Single Judge was affirmed by the Division Bench of the High Court. ....
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....te to a process of verification by an examination, to find out whether such person is suitable for a particular post, job or assignment. An examining body, if it is a public authority entrusted with public functions, is required to act fairly, reasonably, uniformly and consistently for public good and in public interest. Therefore, every examinee will have the right to access his evaluated answer books, by either inspecting them or take certified thereof, unless the evaluated answer books are found to be exempted under Section 8 (1)(e) of the RTI Act. [10] Coming to the present case, an examination was conducted by the MPSC for appointment to various posts in the State of Manipur. There was an allegation against the MPSC for having committed many irregularities in the recruitment process. The matter was brought to this court by way of writ petitions and in one of the writ petitions, this court constituted a Committee to look into the matter and submit a report thereof. As per the report, there were many prima facie irregularities as regards the non-signing of the answer seats by the examiner and supervisor, erroneous in the tabulation, mistakes in the totaling of marks, change of....
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.... Act which empowers a candidate of an examination conducted by a Public Service Commission to treat his evaluated answer sheet/ script as confidential so as to attract the provisions of Section 11 of the RTI Act. The MPSC is under no obligation from the examinee to withhold such information from the citizen except under Section 8 of the RTI Act. In CBSE Vs. Aditya Bandopadhayay, the CBSE fairly conceded that the evaluated answer books will not come under any other exceptions in sub-section (1) of Section 8 but the contention that they are exempted from disclosure under Section 8 (1)(e) of the RTI Act, has been rejected by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. Therefore, the evaluated answer books do not fall under any of the exemptions provided under Section 8 of the RTI Act. In H.D Gupta Vs. Public information Officer, NCT of Delhi, the Central Information Commission, in its decision taken on 17-06-2010, held that an answer script of an examination for a job selection cannot be considered as personal information. The answer scripts were given in course of a public activity which is appearing for a job for a public position and it is impossible to imagine that disclosing an answer sheet can....
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....ar case, it has been held by the Hon'ble Supreme Court that information sought for with regard to marks in Civil Services Exam cannot be directed to be furnished mechanically. Furnishing raw marks which will cause problems as pleaded by the UPSC, will not be in public interest. However, if a case is made out where the Court finds that public interest requires furnishing of information, the Court is certainly entitled to so require in a given fact situation. This is what has exactly been done by the Commission in the present case keeping in mind the public interest and in particular, the irregularities being found by the Committee constituted by this court in the recruitment process undertaken by the MPSC. [11] The other aspect which the learned senior counsel appearing for the petitioner has emphasized, is that the information sought for by the respondent No.2, is a third party information and therefore, the same cannot be furnished without following the procedure prescribed in Section 11 and 19 of the RTI Act. It is not so for the reason that to apply the provisions of Section 11 (1) of the RTI Act, two conditions are required to be fulfilled-one, the information or the record i....