Bharat SainiLast Updated on February 20, 2017 by Bharat Saini
Supreme Court declares students’ right to access their evaluated answer sheets
A case, CBSE Vs Aditya Bandopadhya, opened up a new dimension to examinations and evaluations. The Supreme Court had, in 2011, made it clear that every examinee (Candidate) holds the right to have access to his evaluated answer-books, by either inspecting them or taking certified copies. Reiterating its earlier stand, the Supreme Court (SC) held that citizens have a right to access their evaluated answer sheets and interview marks sheets.
Reviewing a decision of the Kerala High Court and Allahabad High Court, wherein the high courts ruled that candidates are entitled not only to get their scanned copies of the answer sheets and interview marks but also the names of the examiners who have evaluated the answer sheet. The SC made it clear that the public authority does not keep the answer sheets and interview evaluation sheets in a fiduciary capacity. The SC said that disclosing the marks and the answer sheets to the candidates will ensure that the candidates have been given marks according to their performance in the exams. The SC went on to say that such practice of disclosing answer sheets & interview evaluation sheets will ensure a “fair play in this competitive environment…”, where candidate puts his time in preparing for the competitive exams. However, it strictly ruled out any possibility or the need of disclosing the names of the examiners or evaluators. It opined that revealing the identity of the examiners will lead to “confusion and public unrest”.
As the country’s leading player in the Competitive Examinations’ Books space, Upkar welcomes the judgement. It strongly believes that this is a step towards better transparency in the system and hopes that the candidates will be evaluated properly, based on their performance. On the other hand, ruling out examiner’s identity is a right decision as well, as this would save examiners to face legal battles.
