Info about marks in public exams not confidential: Allahabad High Court

Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court has held that information about marks in public examinations is not confidential and it does not require consent of the third party whose marks are sought by the RTI applicant under the Right to Information Act, 2005.

While partly allowing a writ petition filed by Union of India through GM, Diesel Locomotive and another, a bench of justice Ajit Kumar and justice Swarupama Chaturvedi held, "Marks obtained by a candidate, if information regarding that is sought by another candidate, who has also participated in examination, is not such a confidential private information which may require even consent of that third party under section eight of right to information Act, 2005."

"If an outsider seeks information, the department may take a valid defence of confidentiality. However, on the question of photocopies of answer sheets, it may involve checking of answer sheets, signatures of examiners, etc. and, therefore, it may not be appropriate to disclose the names, signatures of the examiners," HC added.