Court tells UPSC to show marks

by CHARU SUDAN KASTURI
Delhi High Court today dismissed a plea by theUnion Public Service Commission seeking immunity from an order todisclose key details of civil service examinations that have so farbeen kept under wraps.
The 2006 Central Information Commission (CIC) decision upheld by thehigh court today ordered the UPSC to disclose students' marks andcut-offs for the preliminary stages of its examinations.
The Right to Information Act watchdog had also ordered the UPSC toreveal the scaling procedure used to normalise scores betweendifferent subjects chosen by students — some subjects are more scoringthan others.
Over four lakh students appear annually for the preliminary civilservice exams that are marred by allegations of inaccurate marking orscoring of answer scripts that are never revealed to students.
"This is a major victory for students across India. The UPSC has beenordered to make its heavily guarded system of examinationstransparent. This will affect all students who sit for civil serviceexams in future," Aman Lekhi, the senior advocate for studentschallenging the UPSC petition, said.
But UPSC sources said the commission may appeal against the high court
verdict in the Supreme Court."Our argument remains that the disclosure of this information wouldhurt the exam process and expose it to manipulation," a senior UPSCofficial said.