NEW DELHI: Agreeing with all three demands of those who had appeared in the Civil Services Preliminary Examination (CSPE) 2006 and were not satisfied with selections, the Central Information Commission (CIC) on Monday directed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to disclose the marks obtained by each candidate in general studies and optional subjects and the cut-off marks in these subjects.

Disposing of petitions filed in this regard, a full Bench of the CIC gave the UPSC two weeks time to furnish the information.

For subjects where there were no cut-off marks, the UPSC should disclose subject-wise marks.

The CIC has also asked the UPSC to consider the possibility of disclosing scaling method as well as model answers under Section 8 (1) (d) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act (that pertains to withholding information if it constitutes trade secrets and intellectual property rights, provided the information does not constitute larger public interest).

The CIC ruled that scaling method — devised to ensure proportional assessment of candidates taking examinations in diverse subjects that have varied scoring potential — served a larger public interest by providing a level-playing field for all aspirants.

The CIC has given the UPSC one month to explore the possibilities. It has agreed, in principle, that model answers should be disclosed any way. According to the CIC, in doing so the UPSC should take into account Section 9 of the RTI Act (not obliged to divulge information that constitutes infringement of copyright).

Decision hailed

Welcoming the decision, Don Sunil, a member of Transparency Seekers — an informal group of candidates, which has been pursuing the demands — said he hoped that the UPSC would abide by the directions.

As of now, the UPSC, which had earlier rejected the RTI applications in this regard, had the option to approach the court.

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