Delhi HC stays CIC order to UPSC on info on marksheet

The Delhi High court yesterday stayed the CIC order directing the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to reveal information about marksheets and the recommendations of the Personality Test (PT) Board of the qualified candidates in the civil service examination in 2009.

Issuing a notice to Kumar Sauvir, whose plea was accepted by CIC for supply of the information, Justice Rajiv Sahai

Endlaw sought his reply by August 24 while granting the stay order on the Central Information Commission's (CIC) order.

Filing a petition challenging the CIC's order, the UPSC said disclosure of the marksheets, recommendations of the (PT) board over the successful candidates would not only endanger the process of secrecy but also damage the confidentiality of the civil service examination.

The UPSC also expressed its apprehension that the interested persons would manipulate or misuse the information supplied by the Commission.

In January this year, the CIC had allowed Sauvir's application in which he had stated that he appeared for civil service examination in 2009 but could not get through.

Aggrieved by the result announced by the UPSC, Sauvir had sought the information from UPSC in May 2009 but the Commission had refused to supply the information to him.

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."

Now, UPSC hopefuls can give interview in mother tongue

In a relief to thousands of civil service aspirants, candidates for the Union Public Service Commission main examination can now give their personality test interview in a language different from the one they choose for the written paper. English will no longer be the mandatory medium for the interview, even if the examination is written in that language.

In a nation where joining the civil services is still considered a big deal, more than 4.8 lakh students appeared for the preliminary UPSC examination this year. The results are expected around August after which the main examination is likely to be held at the year end, in which the candidates' list is expected to be whittled down to approximately 13,000. The list of vacancies would be a fraction at about 1,000 going by the 2010 figures where only the most deserving will get selected. But starting next year, the personality test interviews will be much easier and a relaxed affair. They can even give the test in their mother tongue, if it figures in one of the languages in the eighth schedule.

UPSC under secretary M Mukhopadhyay on Thursday informed the Bombay High Court of the far-reaching recommendations made by an expert committee and accepted by the commission. Accordingly, candidates who opt for an Indian language (other than Hindi) for the written part of the exam will be allowed to choose the same language or English or Hindi as the medium for the interview. Similarly, the UPSC affidavit submitted by its counsel, Rui Rodrigues, also said that from now on, "candidates opting to write the civil services (main) paper in English may be given the option to be interviewed either in English or Hindi or any other Indian language opted by them for the compulsory Indian language paper in the written part".

However, those candidates who are exempt from the compulsory Indian language paper will have to appear for the interview in English or Hindi only. The decision is a step in ruling out injustice and towards creating a level playing field for scores of candidates across India since English is not a native language and regional languages are the primary medium of instruction in scores of schools.

The expert committee headed by professor B B Bhattacharya, ex-vice chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehry University, was set up after Chittranjan Kumar, a 2008 candidate, had filed a public interest litigaton last year questioning what he said was an "existing draconian" rule that required a person writing the UPSC exam in English to also take the interview in the same language.

On Thursday, after taking the commission's affidavit on record and approving its action, the HC bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice G S Godbole disposed of the PIL. The department of personal training of the Indian government has been informed of the changes and soon the detailed application form for the civil services (main) examination will be appropriately modified to ease things for candidates who come from a cross-section of India's varied socio-economic sector determined to crack the civil services code.

The PIL had questioned the fairness of continuing with English as the language for the interview when what was being tested was his or her personality not language skills.