UPSC to divulge Civil Services selection under RTI

The Supreme Court has asked the UPSC to reveal details of civil services selection process for those who seek it under the Right to Information.

UPSC had been resisting demands for divulging the selection process, including scaling system and cut-off marks, despite orders by the Central Information Commission and Delhi high court. The legal battle between UPSC and civil services aspirants finally came to an end in November 2010 when a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha asked UPSC to withdraw its petition and provide information to students.

Students have been fighting for transparency in civil services examination since 2006, when results for UPSC preliminary examinations were declared. Several students, who had not qualified, filed RTI applications with UPSC seeking information on raw marks and cut-off marks in subjects, the scaling procedure and model answers for different questions in subjects.

The main contention of the students was that the level of difficulty of papers in 23 optional subjects did not match. The students also felt that UPSC did not have a fair scaling procedure to match the performance of examinees who had opted for different subjects.

However, UPSC argued that revealing model answers or cut-off marks would benefit private coaching institutes, which would field dummy candidates and crack the system. When aspirants approached CIC, the commission directed UPSC on November 13, 2006, to divulge all information. But UPSC challenged this order in the Delhi high court.

Later it moved the Supreme Court through a special leave petition. The matter came up for final judgment on November 18, 2010. The bench observed that UPSC examination system would change from 2011 and it should not have any reservations about divulging its old selection process. UPSC would now have to divulge details to the students in a month.

Senior advocate Prashant Bhushan said: "The Supreme Court observed that a new examination system would be in place in 2011 so UPSC's plea that its system would be compromised does not stand. UPSC was asked to withdraw the petition. Now it would have to divulge details to the civil services aspirants."