9911796707
TMI Blog2008 (9) TMI 995X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... This Court has repeatedly issued practice directions stressing that a judicial or quasi-judicial body or Tribunal whose order is challenged in a writ petition (and thereafter possibly in appeal) ought not to itself be impleaded as a party respondent. The only exception would be if malafides are alleged against any individual member of such authority or Tribunal in which case again it would be such member, and not the authority/Tribunal, who may be impleaded as a respondent. Accordingly the cause title of the present appeal will read as Union Public Service Commission v. Shiv Shambhu and Ors. 3. The Respondents herein were candidates who had appeared in the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2006. The Civil Services Examination (CSE) - which is in two parts, a preliminary examination followed by a Main examination - is a competitive examination held every year by the UPSC, a constitutional authority under Article 320 of the Constitution of India. The successful candidates are, in the order of their merit, recruited to the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service, Indian Police Service and non-technical Civil Services. Pursuant to the recommendations of the Kot ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... intellectual property under Section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act, 2005. The information requested by you is in the nature of secret documents under Section 8(2) of the RTI Act 2005 and there being no public interest requiring its disclosure, it cannot be disclosed as the disclosure would harm the protected interests. I am to further state that the disclosure of this information shall irreparably undermine the integrity, strength and efficacy of the competitive public examination systems of paramount significant conducted by the UPSC. 3. I am to further invite your attention to para 8 (iv) of the Commission s Notice, which appeared in the Special Supplement of Employment News dated 3rd December 2005 which is reproduced below: Candidates are informed that as the Preliminary Examination is only a screening test, no marks sheets will be supplied to successful or unsuccessful candidates and no correspondence will be entertained by the Commission, in this regard. 7. The appeal to the Appellate Authority of the UPSC was rejected by an order dated 20th October 2006. In the said order it was, inter alia, explained by the Appellate Authority as under: 10.1. The undersigned notes that CS ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... eved by the order of the Appellate Authority the Respondents filed an appeal before the CIC. After discussing the provisions of the RTI Act, the CIC concluded that the question papers prepared by the subject experts for the UPSC were original literary works and that as such the copyright therein vested in the UPSC and further that under Section 8(1)(d) RTI Act, the CIC could order that it should not be disclosed. However, under the same provision the competent authority was empowered to make the disclosure of the material if it was satisfied that larger public interest so warranted. Accordingly, the CIC directed as under: i) The UPSC shall, within two weeks from the date of this order, disclose the marks assigned to each of the applicants for the Civil Services Preliminary Examination 2006 in General Studies and in Option Papers; and ii) The UPSC, within two weeks from the date of this order, shall also disclose the cut-off marks fixed in respect of the General Studies paper and in respect of each of the Option Papers and if no such cut-off marks are there, it shall disclose the subject-wise marks assigned to short-listed candidates; and iii) The UPSC shall examine and con ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... was the Normalized Equipercentile method. 12. After going through the contents of the sealed cover the learned Single Judge found that the scaling methodology deployed by the UPSC stood already disclosed in its counter affidavit filed in the Supreme Court. The learned Single Judge rejected the argument that if the information was revealed a large number of dummy candidates would be made to take the examination by unscrupulous coaching institutes which would result in the alteration of scaling of marks in certain specific subjects, thereby depriving meritorious students in other papers from qualifying. The learned Single Judge held: 22. The sealed marks, employing the methodology revealed by the UPSC before the Supreme Court, is clearly dependent upon the number of candidates. This is inherent in the formula employed itself. However, what the UPSC seems to ignore is that the cut-off mark itself would change. The scaling methodology adopted by them, which seeks at normalizing the distribution curve, would take care of the abnormalities (skewness) caused by the dummy candidates, if any. 13. As regards the likely misuse of this information by the coaching institutes, the learn ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... dology used by the UPSC and a note explaining how the disclosure of the individual marks, cut- off marks and solution keys in respect of the Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination can lead to deciphering of the scaling formulation thus undermining the efficacy of the system. 17. At the outset we wish to observe that a perusal of the documents submitted by the UPSC in a sealed cover, are not of such a nature that can be characterised as secret, or of a type the disclosure of which would not be in public interest. As regards the scaling methodology, as already been pointed out by the learned Single Judge, this is no different from what already stands disclosed by the UPSC to the Supreme Court in its counter affidavit filed in SLP (C) No. 23723 of 2002 and is therefore in the public domain. As regards the apprehension expressed by the UPSC that the scaling formulation could be deciphered first once the cut-off marks and solution keys in respect of individual subject disclosed, we fail to understand how if such information is deciphered in relation to the examination that has already been conducted, somehow it would enable the manipulation of the results of a preliminary examinati ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
