Right to Information Act, 2005 — Sections 2(f), 2(i), 3, 8, 9 & 24 — Public examinations — Examinees’ right to inspect or take certified copies of evaluated answer books — Evaluated answer books fall under the category of `information’ but do not fall under any category of exempted information under sections 8, 9 & 24.
HELD: Having regard to the scheme of the RTI Act, the right of the citizens to access any information held or under the control of any public authority, should be read in harmony with the exclusions/exemptions in the Act.
The examining bodies (Universities, Examination Boards, CBSC etc.) are neither security nor intelligence organisations and therefore the exemption under section 24 will not apply to them. The disclosure of information with reference to answer- books does not also involve infringement of any copyright and therefore section 9 will not apply. Resultantly, unless the examining bodies are able to demonstrate that the evaluated answer-books fall under any of the categories of exempted ‘information’ enumerated in clauses (a) to (j) of sub-section (1) section 8, they will be bound to provide access to the information and any applicant can either inspect the document/record, take notes, extracts or obtain certified copies thereof.
The examining bodies contend that the evaluated answer-books are exempted from disclosure under section 8(1)(e) of the RTI Act, as they are ‘information’ held in its fiduciary relationship. They fairly conceded that evaluated answer-books will not fall under any other exemptions in subsection (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.
Central Board of Secondary Education v. Aditya Bandopadhyay[Bench Strength 2], Civil Appeal No. 6454/2011 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 7526/2009](09/08/2011), 2011(4) SCV(Civil) 337: 2011(8) SCC 497: 2011(9) JT 212: 2011(8) SCALE 645: 2011(6) SLT 282 [R.V. Raveendran, J.: A.K. Patnaik, J.]